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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

IN THE

CAMEL COUNTRY

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2985 AR.ABIA

11^ PICTURE AND STORY
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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN
THE CAMEL COUNTRY

A. E. and S. M. ZWEMER

ZigZeLg Journeys in the Camel
GDuntry

Arabia in Picture and Story.
i2mo, cloth .... «<f/ ^i,oo

Topsy-Turvy Land

Arabia Pictured for Children.
Decorated, cloth . . . «^/ .75

The Desert Scout

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN
THE CAMEL COUNTRY

^M 8F mNc^

ARABIA IN PICTURE^

AND 5 T O i? r I . '^'-T 1 7 1330

SAMUEL M. ZWEMER

and

AMY E. ZWEMER

Aulhars of •' Tapsy Turvy Land "

New York Chicago Toronto

Fleming H. Revell Company

London and Edinburgh

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave.
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street

the children of missionaries
all the world over

HEEE is another book of pictures and stories for
the big children and small grown-up folks who
enjoyed reading "Topsy Turvy Land" and
want to know more about Arabia. A great part of this
strange Camel Country is still unknown, and there are
wide deserts which only the camel and his Arab guide
have ever crossed. A few travellers and missionaries,
however, have seen something of Arabia on their zigzag
journeys along the coasts and inland. Would you like
to hear the story ?

The camels are waiting and the caravan is ready to
start. You will not grow weary by the way, we hope.
If the desert tracks are long and tiresome through the
following chapters, just refresh yourself in the oasis of a
picture.

( S. M. Z.
1 A. E. Z.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN ARABIA , .13

II. THE CAMEL AT HOME . . . .18

III. ALONG UNBEATEN TRACKS IN YEMEN 25

IV. GOING TO MARKET TO SOW SEED . 32

V. WHERE THE QUEEN OF SHEBA LIVED 37

VI. THE JEWS OF KHEIBAR .... 43

VII. AMULETS AND OTHER EVERY-DAY

THINGS 48

VIIL THE MOST WONDERFUL STONE IN

THE WORLD 54

IX. THE CAMEL DRIVER WHO BECAME A

PROPHET 60

X. THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANGELS . 66

XI. PEARLS AND PEARL DIVERS ... 74

XII. A PIONEER JOURNEY ON THE PIRATE

COAST 80

Xm. ACROSS THE DESERT OF OMAN . . 86

XIV. JAIL-BIRDS . . 0 o o , 95

XV. THE ACORN SCHOOL , . , . loi

XVI. THE STORY OF A ROLLER BANDAGE 107

XVn. NAJMA'S LAST CHRISTMAS . . .115

XVIII. THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD . 119

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Desert Scout Frontispiece

The Big Camel Market in the Crater at Aden
Where We Preached Our First Sermon,
1891 14

A Swift Dromedary and an Arab Post-rider . 20

A Caravan from Yemen Bringing in Hides for

American Kid Shoes 22

A Picture Carved in Stone 2,000 Years Old,
v^^iTH ITS Inscription, from the Land of
Sheba 40

The Castle of Kheibat 45

Water Carts Used at Aden to Bring Water

from the Wells to the City ... 46

A Woman of the Hill Tribes, Showing Veil and

Amulets Worn 48

EvERY-DAY Things in Arabia . . • • 54

The Black Stone at Mecca .... 56

Opening of the Hedjaz Railway ... 58

When the Arabs Return from Pilgrimage,
They Load Their Baggage on the Poor,
Patient Camel 64

First Chapter of the Koran .... 68

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Evolution of a Pearl Button ... 76

Prayer in the Desert 88

Map of Oman 91

Bedouin Women and Their Children . . 98

A Meccan Boy 102

A Bedouin Girl Playing Peek-a-boo on a Camel 116

"Arabia" (Song) 125

Grateful acknowledgment is given to Mr. J. M.
Coutinho, photographer at Aden, for permission to use
several full-paged photographs. And gratitude is also
expressed here for the use of other pictures taken by our
missionary friends, the Rev. J. C. Young, M. D., and
Dr. Sharon J. Thorns.

ZIGZAG JOIJENEYS IN AEABIA

IGZAG are the lines across the deserts of Arabia
that mark the weary journeys of the camel
' caravans for centuries. Arabia has no straight
roads. The crooked, winding paths through valley and
along mountainside or over sandy tracks are worn
smooth by the shuffling feet of the animal-with-the-long-
neck. Every bit of desert thorn or green herb on either
side of the path means a step away from the straight line.
The caravan zigzags towards its destination. The ship of
the desert makes more tacks in its onward course than a
sailing-boat with a contrary wind in a narrow harbour.

The Arab, like the camel, is not in love with straight
lines. An Arab carpenter cannot draw a right angle,
and the Arab mason seldom uses a plummet. An Arab
servant has great trouble in laying a table-cloth square on
the table. The old Arab temple at Mecca is called **a
Cube " (Kaaba), and yet has none of its sides and angles
equal but is a zigzag building. Streets are never parallel
or at right angles, but go crisscross in all sorts of ways
except the shortest way.

And so it came to pass that when the tribes of men after
the deluge scattered from the Tower of Babel far to the
south of the big Arabian peninsula they too travelled in
zigzag lines. Some went to the far east on the Persian

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

Gulf aud begau to be pearl-divers at Bahrein. Others
took their best camels all the way across the waterless
desert of the interior and settled in Oman to become the
breeders of the finest dromedaries. Others went meander-
ing southward along the river-beds, called loadiesy till they
came to the beautiful mountains of Yemen, green with
trees and bright with blossoms. Others loved the dry,
clear, keen air of the high plateau, and making tents of
goat-hair they lived with their flocks, and are the Bedouin
tribes of to-day. Still others were driven to the west and,
because the country was barren and dreadfully hot,
settled near a spring called Zem Zem, and built the city
of Mecca. The waters of the spring were good, they
said, for fever and pain, and so Mecca became a health
resort and a market-place, and finally a religious centre.
Every year the distant tribes came in great caravans to
visit the city and exchange mares, camel-foals and bits of
poetry.

The children of Ishmael and other grandchildren of
** Father Abraham'^ also wandered down, and before the
time of David the zigzag lines of the caravans that carried
costly merchandise from Persia and India were all over
Arabia. The siugle-track roads were as thick as the
wrinkles on an old man's forehead. But the great trunk
lines were three : one of them extended from Aden on the
far south, which was the chief harbour, along the whole
western stretch of Arabia to Egypt. This was the road
which the Queen of Sheba took when she came to see

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

A R A c^ B I A

Solomon in all his gloryS^he other road extended from
Babylon across the desert to Damascus, the oldest city in
the world ; and the third caravan route, nearly as im-
portant as the other two, went slant-wise from the mouth
of the Euphrates River to the old capital of the Queen of
Sheba, Marib. These three great railroads of the desert
were busy day after day and month after month and year
after year for many centuries. Great cities sprang up
beside these camel tracks, and the ruins of Tadmor still
show the wonderful importance of old time Arabia.

But for one reason and another trade chose other chan-
nels, and Arabia lost its importance. When the Wise
Men came from the East to Bethlehem^s Manger the
trunk lines were still in existence, but soon after Mo-
hammed^ s birth other parts of the world became more
important, and Arabia became less and less known except
to those who live in its deserts.

It had to be rediscovered in the present century, and
the story of the rediscovery of Arabia is full of interest.
This story, also, is a story of zigzag journeys.

Some bold travellers in Europe were anxious to visit
the birthplace of Mohammed and see the holy city of
Mecca, and at the risk of their lives, men like Burck-
hardt. Burton and others reached Mecca and Medina,
travelling with the Arab caravans and dressed as Moslem
pilgrims. In 1862 Palgrave made his celebrated journey
across Arabia from west to east. And in 1876 Doughty,
one of the bravest travellers, made his long and difficult

#■

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

zigzag journeys througli Northwest and North Arabia,
often in danger of his life. Suffering hunger and thirst
with the Bedouins, he was driven from place to place
until he finally got out of the interior safely.

Even earlier than these well-known travellers were the
journeys of Cursten Mebuhr in Yemen. In 1763 he was
sent by the King of Denmark to explore the unknown
peninsula, and set out with five companions. After many
wonderful adventures he came back, but he was the only
one of the five : the others died in Arabia through fever
or on the voyage.

Except for the portion of Arabia seen by those bold
travellers and by others like them, a great part of the
country is still unknown. No missionaries have ever
crossed Arabia although they have made journeys into
the interior and along the coasts. It is surprising, but it
is true that the most unknown country in the world to-
day is Arabia. "We have better maps of the North Polar
regions and even of the moon than we have of Southeast
Arabia and portions of the interior.

The barren desert, fear of the Bedouin, always ready to
rob and waylay the caravan, and the hatred of the Moslem
for the Christian have closed the country for many years
against travellers and missionaries ; but, although so long
neglected, Arabia is now becoming better known. The
coasts have been explored, and they are actually building
a railway to-day across the desert from Damascus to
Mecca and another railway along the northern borders to

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

Bagdad. A few months ago a British traveller crossed
Arabia in a motor car. How the camels must have been
surprised !

In the chapters that follow, we will take some zigzag
journeys together, — sometimes on camels, sometimes on
donkey-back, or in the Arab sailing-boats along the coast.
We will not tell you what others have seen or heard in
this wonderful country of the camel, but tell our own
story ; and we hope that you will learn to love the Arab,
his country, and his camel as much as we do, and make
many a new zigzag track across the map of Arabia to
mark your journeys as future missionaries.

THE CAMEL AT HOME

Mr. a7id Mrs. Camel

At Home All Over

Arabia.
B. C. 4000- A. D. igii.

PEESIA for goats, Egypt for crocodiles, Cashmere
for slieep, Thibet for bulldogs, India for tigers,
but Arabia for the camel ! To see real live drome-
daries, you must come to Arabia. For although the
camel is often met with elsewhere, no country can show
him in all his beauty like that country which is called by
the Arabs themselves *^Um-eMbl," mother of the camel.
The Oman dromedary is the prince of all camel breeds,
and is so highly esteemed in the markets of the East as
to fetch three times the price of any other camel. And
no wonder that this animal has reached perfection in
Arabia ! He has been at home in its deserts and trained
by its tribes for many, many centuries. Arabia and the
camel are so closely connected that one can neither under-
stand the Arab nor his language without him. Without
the camel, life in a large part of Arabia would at present

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

be impossible. Without the camel, the Arabic language
itself would lose a vast number of words and ideas and
possibly also a great many of its difficult sounds. There
is not a page in the Arabic dictionary which does not
have some reference to the camel and the life of this
wonderful ship of the desert. The Arabs give him five
thousand, seven hundred and forty- four different names,
but the most common name by which he is known, not
only by the Arabs but in all languages, is that of '* Jemil,"
that is to say, '* camel."

When the Ishmaelites brought Joseph to Egypt, and
when the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, they
travelled on camels. The caravan was the earliest
trunk line across the great lands of the East, and has
probably carried more freight and more passengers than
the Pennsylvania Eailroad or the largest ocean liners.
Long before wagons were invented, wheat, barley, wool
and spices came across the desert on camels to Nineveh
and Egypt.

Have you ever seen such a desert ship? A large,
bony animal, six or seven feet high to the top of its
hump, and rude and ungainly in appearance. Its neck
is long, but curved beautifully. Its ears are ridiculously
small, and the upper lip is cleft nearly to the nose, while
the lower lip hangs down, and gives the whole face the
appearance of ^'having the blues."

The camel has many uses. When^ too old to carry a
burden, it is used for food. Camel's milk is very whole-

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

some. Camera hair is used for making both fine and

coarse cloths, and the skin is used for sandals, water-bags

and thongs.

The dromedary is the swift post-camel, which carries

its rider on long journeys seventy miles a day on the

stretch. A caravan of ordinary camels is like a freight

train and is intended to go slowly and surely with its

heavy load of merchandise ; but a company of dromedary

riders is like a limited express. The ordinary caravan

travels six hours a day and about three miles an hour,

but a good dromedary can perform wonders on the road.

A merchant once rode the entire distance from El Kasim

to Taif and back, over seven hundred miles in fifteen

days ; and a post-rider at Maan in North Arabia can

deliver a message at Damascus, two hundred miles away,

at the end of three days. The ordinary camel is like a

packhorse, but the dromedary by careful breeding has

become a race-horse. The camel is thick-built, heavy

footed, ungainly, jolting. The dromedary has more

slender limbs, finer hair, a lighter step, a wonderfully

easy pace and is more enduring of thirst. All the camels

in Arabia have a single hump. The two-humped camel,

which you sometimes see in the circus, does not come

from Arabia, but from Central Asia. As for the ordinary

camel, his life is as hard as the desert soil and as barren

of all comfort as the desert is bare of grass. Surely, no

animal would have more right to feel sulky and dull.

Always in hard use as a beast of burden, underfed and

A Swift Dromedarv and an Arab Post-rider

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

A I R A B I A

overloaded in the desert land where even a thorny bush
is considered a tit-bit, and where water costs money, it
is no fun at all to be a camel.

Yet to describe the camel is to describe God's goodness
to the desert dwellers. The Arabs have a saying that
the camel is the greatest of all blessings given by Allah
to mankind j and when Mohammed, the prophet, wished
to call attention to the providence and loving-kindness of
God among the Bedouins, who were not at all religious,
he said, *^ And will ye not look then at the camel how
she is created? " With his long neck he is able to reach
far out among the desert shrubs on both sides of his path-
way and to eat as he trudges along. The skin of his
mouth is so thick and tough that it enables him to eat
hard and thorny plants, the only herbage of the desert.
The camel's ears are very small so that he can close them
when the desert storm begins and the sand-drifts come
like a snow-storm. But his nostrils are large for breath-
ing and yet can be closed up tight during the fearful
simoom or hot desert winds. His eyes are protected by
heavy, overhanging lids against the direct rays of the
noon sun, and his cushioned feet are adapted for the ease
of the rider and of the animal himself. Five horny pads,
one on each knee, and one under the breast, support the
animal when kneeling to receive a burden or when he
rests on the hot sand. The camel's hump was nature's
pack-saddle for the commerce of many lands and for
many ages. The arched backbone which supports the

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

hump is constructed, just like the Brooklyu Bridge, to

sustain the greatest weight in proportion to the span. A

strong camel can bear one thousand pounds' weight,

although the usual load is not more than six hundred

pounds. The camel is the most useful of all domestic

animals, as you can see in the pictures. He can carry

burdens or draw water or carry the swift post or bring in

fire- wood from the desert, or grind corn. While still

living he provides fuel, milk, excellent hair for making

tents, ropes, and shawls. And when dead the Arabs eat

his flesh for food, use his leather to make sandals, and

the big broad shoulder-blades are used as slates in the

day-schools in many parts of Arabia. A camel march

is the standard of distance among the Arabs, and the

price of a milch camel is the standard of value among the

Bedouins of the desert. The camel is the most patient

animal in existence, and yet he often has an ugly temper

and is undoubtedly stupid to a degree. He will never

attempt to throw you off his back, but if you fall off he

will never dream of stopping for you ; and if turned

loose in the desert, it is a chance of a thousand to one

whether he will find his way back to his accustomed home

or pasture. When the camel becomes angry, he bends

back his long, snaky neck and opens his big jaws to

bite. Do you notice the powerful jaws of the camels in

the pictures ? Yet with all his faults, his ungainly gait,

and his ugly appearance, you cannot help loving this

ship of the desert when once you have made a zigzag

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA
journey on camel-back with the Arab caravans. Perched
high in the air you feel as if you were riding on a church
steeple or an aeroplane and the swinging, swaying motion
after you become used to it is as good as that of a pleasure
yacht in New York Bay when the wind is blowing. Then
you feel like singing with the Arab poet :

*' Roast meat and milk ; the swinging ride
On a camel sure and tried,
Which her master speeds amain
O'er low dale and level plain."

There are two lessons we can learn from the camel, and
I think all the boys and girls who read this chapter will
like to know them. The first is, how to bear a burden and
never complain. The secret of carrying this burden you
will see when the caravan prepares for the long journey.
Every camel kneels down to receive its load in the morn-
ing ; every camel kneels down to have its load taken off
in the evening. And that is why he is able to carry hia
burden to the end of the desert road. How much easier
the great burden of a lost world in need of the Gospel
could be carried, if we all learned to kneel morning and
evening ! To kneel and have the Master's hand lay the
burden on us, and the same hand take it off. Then we
would feel the responsibility, and yet not miss the quiet-
ness and rest of real missionary service. Will you not
kneel to-night, and to-morrow, and ask Jesus to teach you
this lesson? Because, you know, the burden of these

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

heathen lauds is very heavy. There is on all of them, on
Arabia too, the burden of sin, and of suffering, and of
sorrow. What an awful burden ! And yet the Bible
tells us, ^^Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ.'^

The second lesson is that of patiencey which is the chief
virtue of the camel, the most necessary virtue for every
little missionary, and absolutely necessary for every big
missionary. As the long train of camels goes on through
the narrow sand path and between the thorn shrubs of the
wilderness, step by step, without sound and without ceas-
ing, tramp, tramp, tramp, I have often thought of the text;
^* They shall walk and not faint." Patient walking is better
than impatient hurrying, in mission work and everything
else. Patient waiting, too, you can learn from the camel.
To wait patiently for results and not to dig up the seed
we have sown before it sprouts. The Great Husbandman
has long patience over every seed that He sows j why
should not we ?

" Let us, then, be np and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait,"

ALONG UNBEATEN TEACKS IN YEMEN /

THOSE who think Arabia is a sandy desert with
a few nomad tents and camels and ostriches
scattered over it, have never seen Yemen.
Yemen is the most fertile and most beautiful of all the
provinces of Arabia. It means the rigid handy and this
name was given it as one of good omen by the early
Arabs. It was called by the Eomans Arabia Felix, or
Happy Arabia, to distinguish it from Arabia Fetrea
(Stony Arabia) and Arabia Beserta (Desert Arabia).

Those who have never gone inland from Aden cannot
imagine how very different the hill country is from the
torrid coast, but a journey of even thirty miles inland is
convincing. Corn never grew more luxuriantly in Kansas
or Iowa than in some of the valleys of Yemen. If the
country had a good government and the people were Chris-
tians, it would be one of the happiest in the world ; a coun-
try where the orange, lemon, quince, grape, mango, plum,
apricot, peach and apple yield their fruit in their sea-
son ; where you can also get pomegranates, figs, dates,
plantains and mulberries ; a country where wheat, barley
and coffee are staple products, and where there is a glo-
rious profusion of wild flowers— although the camel drivers
call it grass. Here one can see the nest of the oriole hang-
ing from the acacia tree, and wild doves chasing each other

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA
from the clefts of the rocks, while farther up in the high-
lands, wild monkeys sport among the foliage of the trees.

It was my privilege to make two journeys through
Yemen to its beautiful capital, Sanaa. On my first jour-
ney (1891) I went by the usual road from Hodeida on the
coast, but in 1893 I chose the unbeaten tracks from Aden
directly north, in order to see some of the places not yet
visited and meet the people.

At the time of my first and also of my second journey,
the Arabs were in rebellion against the Turks. They
have been fighting them now for fifteen years, trying to
secure their independence, and this year the country is
more disturbed than ever, but the Arabs have no unity,
no leadership, and, worst of all, no artillery, and so the
Turkish government succeeds in crushing the rebellion
time after time, and holding this province of Arabia in
her grasp.

It was five o' clock on Monday morning, July 2d, that
I set off from Aden with my camel boy Salih, and we did
not stop until we reached the village of ^Yahat, nearly at
noon. Starting again at seven o^ clock, we followed the
Arab custom of marching the whole night with the cara-
van. There was no breeze, and it was very hot. Vege-
tation does not begin until you enter Wady Merga. Here
we had fresh dates, and made our camp under a big acacia
tree. The road begins to rise rapidly as we follow the
Wady northwards, and at midnight we pass Suk-el- Juma,

or Friday market. This part of the road, they teU us, is

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

dangerous, and so the Bedouins who accompany our
eighty-two camel caravan swing the lighted wicks which
they use to fire their flint-lock shotguns. Only one man
in the party had a Springfield rifle. On July 4th we fell
in with some Arabs who wanted to seize me as a spy of
the British government and keep me as a prisoner until
money was paid for my release. After some difficulty we
persuaded them that I was not a British subject, and that
no money would be paid even if they kept me a prisoner
for many days.

The following day we had another adventure. Climb-
ing up the valley and past fields of verdure, where men
were plowing and women were weeding the gardens, we
suddenly stumbled upon a Turkish castle, where an un-
mannerly negro official was in charge. He said no
strangers were allowed beyond the Turkish frontier,
seized all my baggage, confiscated my books and maps,
and sent me under guard to Taiz, the next important
town. On the afternoon of the same day, a heavy thunder-
storm burst upon us from a clear sky, the wind, became a
hurricane, some of the camels stampeded, our umbrellas
turned inside out, and, worst of all, a mountain torrent,
swollen by the sudden rains and hail, carried away a
donkey and part of our baggage. Drenched to the skin,
we at last forced the camels up the slope to the house of
an Arab, and were hospitably entertained, around a big
fire which he built, on Arab coffee and sweetmeats.

We were now three thousand feet above sea level, and

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

it was very cold at night even in July. "We pressed on
the next day, travelling through a country where every
one fears his neighbour. I asked my guide why he had
not prayed since we left Wahat, and his answer was, ^* If
I pray on the road, my heart gets soft, and I fear to
shoot an Arab robber because he may be a Moslem. ' ^ "We
saw many centipedes and scorpions sleeping after their
rain bath, and warming themselves on the rocks. Every
turn of the road brought us in sight of new villages, and
everywhere the peasants have done their best to cultivate
the soil by irrigation, until you can count a dozen terraces
one above the other up the mountainside, in various
shades of green of the different crops. Once and again
we met caravans going down to the coast, carrying coffee
or sheep-hides, as you see in the picture. One could
hear the approach of a caravan by the camel drivers*
song. In a high, monotonous key and with endless
repetition, they would sing verses like this about their
camels :

" O Lord, keep them from all dangers that pass,
And make their long legs pillars of brass."

Two days later we arrived at the interesting old town
of Taiz, and I think I was the first "Western traveller to
visit it since the days of Niebuhr in 1763. While wait-
ing for the governor to investigate the seizure of my
baggage and the question of my passport, I had a good

opportunity to study the town. Taiz has a population

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

of about seven thousand people ; two or three very old
mosques with minarets, a Jewish synagogue, and a very
respectable market. Just back of the town rises a moun-
tain called the Bride's Castle, from the top of which you
can see clear across to the African coast. The Turkish
government takes its own time about such a little matter
as the inspection of baggage and the granting of a pass-
port, and it was July 26th before I left Taiz. Even then
I was not released, but sent on from the local governor
to the capital under guard of a mounted trooper, who
rode a beautiful horse, while I followed on a mule. It
was no hardship, however, to get away from Taiz, and
once more to breathe the country air and climb the moun-
tain passes.

A long day's journey, always climbing up the mountain-
side, brought us to Ibb, where my servant was imprisoned
because he had told me the names of the villages. After
some difficulty he was released, but the incident shows
how suspicious the Turks are of strangers who travel in
their country. Twelve hours farther on we came to
Yerim, an unhealthy town situated near a marsh. It
was July 29th, but the high elevation and the rain-storms
brought the temperature down to fifty-two degrees,
which was a great change from the temperature at Aden
which, when I left, was 105 degrees in the shade. At
another village, Maaber, even at noon the temperature
was not over fifty-six degrees, and we wrapped ourselves

up as though we were on a polar expedition. In these

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA
highlands of Yemen snow falls during the winter season,
and frost is common. Just after leaving Yerim, we
passed a large boulder on the road with an impression in
it as though it were of some one's foot. The Arabs say-
it is that of Ali, the grandson of Mohammed, who came
along this road, and whenever they pass it they anoint it
with oil and stop to pray.

From Yerim on to Sanaa the plateau is more level.
"Wide fields of barley and wheat took the place of coffee
plantations, and the funniest sight we saw was camels
hitched up for plowing. "What with their long necks
and queer harness, so much too big for the job, it was an
odd sight. Damar, a large town with three mosques and
houses built of stone, was our next stopping place.
From Damar to Waalan was thirty-five miles, and then
to Sanaa eighteen miles more. The roads here are splen-
did and are kept in good repair for the sake of the
Turkish artillery, although there are no carriages nor
horses in use.

On Thursday, August 2d, I entered Sanaa by the

Yemen gate. Three years before I entered the same city

from the other side, coming from Hodeida. Handed

over to the care of a policeman, I waited for the governor

to hear my case, and after finding an old Greek friend

who knew me in Aden, and offered to go bail, I was

allowed liberty, and for nineteen days was busy seeing

the city and visiting the Arabs. \Ye shall hear more of

Sanaa in a following chapter. I forgot to say that at

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

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Yerim, while sleeping in tlie coffee shop, I was robbed
of all my money, and so I ended my zigzag journey not
only tired out, but a pauper ; and if I had not pawned
my watch and coat, I would have been in debt to the
hotel keeper. Pioneer journeys in Topsy Turvy Land
are not without difficulty.

IV
GOraG TO MAEKET TO SOW SEED

THE Arabs are a very old-fashioned people. In
fact, their customs have not changed since the
time that Ishmael as a boy went with his mother
Hagar on the camels and landed somewhere in Arabia.
I suppose that even in those old times the Arabs and the
Syrians kept, a weekly market where all the people from
all the villages came together to barter their wares, to
shake hands and make acquaintance and go back with
a larger idea of their small world. The custom of
holding weekly markets on a special day of the week
even in the smallest villages is still common in Arabia.
In fact, there are villages that take their name from a
market day, and are called *' Thursday ^^ or ^'Saturday "
because on those days of the week the village takes on an
air of importance and doubles in population. The Arabs,
however, do not have the same names for the days of the
week that we have. Instead of naming them after idols,
Thursday after Thor and Wednesday after the old god
Woden, they number the days of the week just as in
the first chapter of Genesis, and have **The First Day,^^
*'The Second Day,'^ etc. The only exception is Friday
which is the sacred day of the week and the Mohammedan

Sabbath and is named **The Day of the Congregation '^

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ARABIA

because then tliey all go to tlie markets to pray and hear
a sermon.

A busy market is held at *'Suk el Khamis'^ every
Thursday all the year round, rain or shine (and it gen-
erally is shine in Arabia), out in the open air near
the ruins of an old mosque about three miles dis-
tant from Menama village at Bahrein where the mis-
sionaries live. The two tall miuarets on the mosque
can be seen from the market. It is one of the oldest
mosques in East Arabia, and was built several hundred
years ago and rebuilt several times. Now it is no longer
used to pray in nor does the call to prayer ever ring out
from the minarets. The fact is that one Moslem sect
after another took possession of the building, and in the
religious disputes that arose the building itself went into
decay. One part of the mosque is now used for a goat
pen. The gray square stones of which the mosque was
once built are scattered about and serve as seats for
visitors, and every traveller who visits Bahrein climbs
up one of the minarets and gets a fine view of the islands.
If you can read the old writing carved on the stones in
Arabic script, you can see how often this mosque has
changed hands between the rival parties in the Moslem
world called Shiahs and Sunnis, and if you should ever
visit the missionary rooms of the Eeformed Church in
New York, the secretary there can show you a gavel or
mallet made from a beam of wood which was once in the
roof of this very mosque. A piece of the old beam fell

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ARABIA

to the ground and was made into a mallet to sliow that
the religion of Islam in Arabia is decaying and that mis-
sionaries to Moslems need not be afraid to enter the
country of Mohammed.

Every Thursday morning the plain around this mosque
is a busy scene. How often I have ridden down to this
market on a donkey or walked in the heat of the sun and
have seen a thousand or more people crowded together in
all their bright coloured garments, men and women and
children, busily engaged in trade, in play, or in quarrels
over the price of an article ! One man, perhaps, brings a
load of water jars from the village of Ali. Another has
a big donkey load of ropes or mats for sale, and still an-
other brings great baskets of melons, pomegranates, dates,
limes and vegetables. Women, covered over with their
heavy black veils and looking very mischievously through
little peep holes for their eyes, crouch on the ground be-
fore their little open-air stands where they sell cheap
jewelry and trinkets or tiny bottles of perfume and black
antimony powder, which the Arab girls use for their
eyes.

The barber is also busy and plies his razor with a deft

hand while he shaves the heads and beards of those who

come, charging only a few coppers for the job. The

breadmaker arrives on the scene very early, and builds

his small open oven to bake his flap-cakes. He rolls the

dough on a board, flattens it out with his fingers and then

tosses it against the sides of the hot oven where it sticks

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

fast aud bakes into a large, liglit, palatable cake. Ob,
bow good sucb Arab bread is wben you are buDgry, or
wben you sit down to au Arab guest meal aud bave it
served witb fresb butter and boney I

More numerous and more loud tban all tbe others who
come are tbe balf- naked Bedouins who come to sell a
drove of sbeep or barter for a couple of camels. They are
all there tbis morning :

*' Klch man, poor man, beggar man, thief ;
Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief ;
Butcher, baker and candlestick maker."

And if tbe candlestick maker, who sells more candles
tban candlesticks, is present, why should the missionary,
who is sent to bring the Light of Life to men, be absent !
As often as possible therefore we visit tbis market-
place, and sell books and Bibles or preach to those who
will listen. It is not at all an easy place to sell or to
preach, but those who come there witness fine, splendid
opportunities to meet men face to face, to get acquainted
and to renew old acquaintance with villagers who come
from distant parts of the Bahrein Island group. Here it
is that many a gospel portion has exchanged bands and
many a story of the power of Christ has been sowed as
good seed in the hearts of the Arabs in the hope that
God would use it to make them think of Jesus Christ as
their Saviour. If books are sold they are often carried
from here to distant villages, and it is possible to make

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acquaintance here with Arabs who come from the main-
land and are visiting the islands, while one is sure to meet
old friends who have not been able to come to see you for
a long time.

One merchant used to keep a dry-goods stand and was
one of the few Moslems in the early days of our work who
was always glad to welcome a missionary. When the sun
was very hot the shelter of his mat-screen was a nice shady
nook to sit down in and talk with wayfarers. Eight near
the tall minarets we sometimes discuss the Koran and its
teachings, and tell the Arabs how the book of Mohammed
is really a finger-post pointing them to the Gospel and to
Jesus Christ, the Great Prophet Who is alive forevermore.
Will you not pray that every Thursday God will bless
this little acre, the market-place of Suk el Khamis,
where we sow the seed of God's Own Word, waiting for
the harvest ?

* Sowing the seed with an aching heart,
Sowing the seed while the tear-drops start,
Sowing the seed till the reapers come
Gladly to gather the harvest home ;
Gathered in time or eternity,
Sure, ah sure, will the harvest be."

WHEEE THE QUEEN OF SHEBA LIVED

YOU have all read the story given in 1 Kings x.
of the Queen of Sheba and her visit to Solomon
of whose fame she had heard in her distant
kingdom in Southwest Arabia, but the story as told in
Mohammed's Bible, the Koran, is very different, and has
many curious fables mixed up with it. It is found in the
chapter called *' The Ant,'' and this is how he tells it.

^'We heretofore bestowed knowledge on David and
Solomon : and they said. Praise be unto God, who hath
made us more excellent than many of His faithful serv-
ants ! And Solomon was David's heir; and he said, O
men, we have been taught the speech of birds, and have
had all things bestowed on us ; this is manifest excellence.
And his armies were gathered together unto Solomon,
consisting of genii, and men and birds ; and they were
led in distinct bands, until they came unto the valley of
ants. And an ant, seeing the hosts approaching, said, O
ants, enter ye into your habitations, lest Solomon and his
army tread you under feet, and perceive it not. And
Solomon smiled, laughing at her words, and said, O
Lord, excite me that I may be thankful for Thy favour
wherewith Thou hast favoured me and my parents ; and
that I may do that which is right and well-pleasing unto
Thee ; and introduce me, through Thy mercy, into Para-

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

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dise, among Thy servants the righteous. And he viewed
the birds, and said, What is the reason that I see not the
lapwing ? Is she absent? Verily I will chastise her with
a severe chastisement, or I will put her to death, unless
she bring me a just excuse. And she tarried not long
before she presented herself unto Solomon, and said, I
have viewed a country which thou hast not viewed ; and
I come unto thee from Saba, with a certain piece of news.
I found a woman to reign over them, who is provided
with everything requisite for a prince, and hath a magnif-
icent throne. I found her and her people to worship the
sun, besides God.^^

The Koran then goes on to tell how Solomon sent her a
letter, and she sent ambassadors to him, and finally asked
one of his terrible jinn to bring her to him, throne and
all, from Southwest Arabia. He did it in the twinkling
of an eye, and after she saw Solomon and his glory she
was converted to his religion !

Although this latter story of the Queen of Sheba is
evidently fabulous, there is no doubt that the Bible story
is true, because recent explorers have visited the country
of the Queen of Sheba and her old capital Marib, a short
distance east of Sanaa, and have brought back inscrip-
tions which tell of the ancient glory of her kingdom. In
the Old Testament the Sabaeans lived in Sheba, and their
caravans brought gold and precious stones and spices into
distant lands. (See Job vi. 19 j Ezek. xxvii. 22, and
Psalm Ixxii. 10.)

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ARABIA

On my first and second visit to Sanaa, the high moun-
tain capital of all Yemen, I was privileged to look over
into the borders of the country where the Queen of Sheba
lived, and on the journey described in Chapter III I
probably travelled from the coast by the same road which
was used in the days of Solomon. It is not easy to build
roads in so mountainous a country. Everywhere one can
see the ruins of the old Himyarite civilization which
flourished here from the time of Solomon until the Chris-
tian era. Some of the roads undoubtedly have been kept
in repair ever since they were built along the mountain-
side by these early engineers. Stone bridges across tor-
rent beds, tanks for holding water, and old castles with
inscriptions in the strange language, still witness to the
strength and vigour of this old empire. The accompany-
ing picture is not that of the Queen of Sheba herself, but
is undoubtedly that of a princess in the Sheba country.
It was found among many, many other inscriptions and
carvings in the land south of Marib, the old capital,
where the famous dyke was built which was destroyed
by a flood. When you study the picture, you will notice
that the woman^s dress, with its ornaments and without a
veil, the use of a throne, the carved pillars, and the page
boys (or are they girls?) in waiting, are all so very differ-
ent from the Arabia of to-day. The picture is also inter-
esting when we remember how the early travellers and
scientists who copied or brought back these famous in-
scriptions have confirmed the history of the Old Testa-

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A R A B I ^ A

ment and its many references to South Arabia. One of
them says : ** The Queen of Sheba proved Solomon with
hard questions, all of which in his wisdom he answered
her. Now we who study the Old Testament, reversing
the process, go to the wonderland of that queen with a
multitude of inquiries, to many of which it has already
given us a satisfactory reply. '^

The capital of the Queen of Sheba, Marib, is largely in
ruins, but something of the glory of the old civilization
still lingers at Sanaa, which is at once one of the most
beautiful and one of the most ancient cities of Arabia,
built before the time of Solomon. It lies in a wide valley
7,250 feet above sea level. Jebel Nakum, with its marble
quarries, rises abruptly like a fortress, just east of the
city. The town is surrounded by a high wall, and has
four gates. The houses are many of them four and five
stories high, built of stone, and as they have no window-
glass, they use slabs of alabaster instead. The popula-
tion of the city is about fifty thousand, of whom more
than twenty thousand are Jews.

My first visit to the city was in 1891, and the second
in 1894. The first time I came straight up from Hodeida
through Menakha, and in four days reached the city.
The second journey was from Aden northward, leaving
on July 2d, but what with delays and accidents and im-
prisonment by the Turks at Taiz, I did not reach Yemenis
capital until the 2d of August. The most surprising

thing about Sanaa is not its old ruins, nor the wonderful

A picture carved in stone 2,000 years old. with its inscription,
from the land of Sheba

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

fertility of the country round about, but the interesting
character of its population. Here was a largo city full of
Jews who came to this part of the world, as they them-
selves testified, long before the destruction of Jerusalem ;
Greek merchants were carrying on a brisk trade in all
the manufactured articles of Europe with the Arabs of
the interior ; Turkish army officials in splendid uniform
trying in vain, as they are to-day, with their regiments
of Turkish troops to put down Arab rebellions ; and then
the Arabs themselves, men, women and children, strong
mountaineers, with love for liberty and heartily despising
the government of which they are unwilling subjects.

Looking northward from this city you can see the
highlands of Asir and the distant road that leads through
Kejran. All this country was once Christian, and in
Sanaa itself stood the great cathedral built by the Abys-
sinian king, Abraha, about the time when Mohammed was
born. From Sanaa he led his army to Mecca, hoping to
take the city and convert it to the Christian faith, but he
was not successful. In the Koran chapter of ''The Ele-
phant," you may read how the Christians were defeated
when smallpox broke out among them. Standing on the
slopes of Jebel Nakum and looking eastward, the country
of the Queen of Sheba is spread out before you. You
can imagine I was very sorry that, having been robbed
of all my money on the way, it was impossible to carry
out my plan of going from Sanaa to Marib, and from
there right across Arabia to Bahrein. Perhaps some of

41/

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

you who read these lines will be privileged to make this
journey. If you are, you will pass through some of the
most interesting ruins in the world, and the hardships of
a camel journey will be abundantly compensated by
what you see on the road.

THE JEWS OF KHEIBAE

NE AELY all of tlie people who live in the country
of the camel are Mohammedans, but it was not
always so. Before the days of Mohammed,
the prophet, there were very many Christians in Arabia
and also many Jews. The former lived mostly in the
southern part of the great peninsula, but the Jews had
large settlements not only in the country of the Queen of
Sheba — of which we have heard — but also at Mecca and
Medina, which are now the two sacred cities, and espe-
cially in the country north of Medina, Kheibar. Some
of these children of Israel came to Arabia at the time of
the captivity when they were driven from their own
country by persecution, and settled down in the rich and
fertile valleys of Nejran and on the hills of Yemen.
Others came to Arabia about the time when Jesus Christ
was born.

There are Jews in Arabia still but not nearly as many
as in the olden time. Their condition, too, is very sad
and they are often sorely oppressed by the Moslems.
There is no missionary working among them at present,
although they have been visited by colporteurs who
brought them the New Testament in the Hebrew lan-
guage so that they might read for themselves the story of
the Saviour Jesus Christ. I once had the pleasure of

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ARABIA

talking to a large company of Jews in the capital city
of Yemen, Sanaa, and it was very touching to realize
that these Jews were not of the number whose ancestors
rejected Jesus and led Him out to be crucified, because
as they themselves told me their forefathers had left the
Holy Land many, many years before Jesus was born at
Bethlehem.

But I want to tell you about the Jews of Kheibar.
Northeast of the city where Mohammed lies buried, Me-
dina, there is a barren stretch of rocky country and in
the midst of it a valley where there are some springs of
water and where with great toil it is possible to produce
some vegetation. Here it was that thousands of Jews
settled in the days before Mohammed, tilled the soil and
lived happily until the Arabian prophet with his fierce
warriors came preaching a new religion and filling the
valley with the dead bodies of those who would not ac-
cept it.

You may read the story of this expedition of Moham-
med in the history of his life. So bloody was the battle
fought between the Jews and the Moslems that the Bed-
ouins of that region when they see the iron rust on the
banks of the brooks still say : ^'Look how the earth is
■purging itself of the much blood of the Jews that was
spilled in the conquest of Kheibar. ^^ According to the
stories told by the Arab writers it was a desperate strug-
gle. The Jews did not give Mohammed, the prophet,

any easy victory. To defend themselves against Bedouin

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

robbers and against assault they had built in the midst of
their valley several castles or forts, one of which was so
wonderful that it has very often been celebrated among
the Arabs. It was called the Castle of Kheibar or Kamoos.
An old Jewish warrior told the people that if they would
build a fort in exact obedience to his written command it
would be so strong that no enemy could overcome them
or enter the fort. And these were his instructions :
*^ Build the castle with eight gates and only one entrance ;
the walls eightfold and square ; the entrance from the
fifth ; the second, the fourth ; the third, the first ; the

THE CASTLE OF KHEIBAR.

fourth, the second ; the fifth, the third ; the sixth and
seventh and eighth unchanged." I will not leave you to
puzzle over these strange instructions. An Arab friend

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ARABIA

of mine who told me the story drew the castle for me and
here you have it. If you will try to find your way to the
keep of the castle where the Jews defended themselves,
you will agree that it is not surprising that it took Mo-
hammed twenty days to storm it. When the castle was
taken, the booty divided and the captives slain in a most
cruel manner, Mohammed took Safia, the widow of the
chief of Kheibar to his tent as his captive. Zainab, the
sister of the warrior who fought against Mohammed and
who herself had lost her brother, her husband and her
father in the battle, tried the next day to kill the prophet
of Arabia by sending him some mutton into which she
had put poison, but her attempt at vengeance was not
successful. The Moslems say it was a miracle that their
prophet escaped.

The conquest of the Jews was complete, for all the Jews
that escaped from the siege of Kheibar were obliged to
turn Moslems and there never was freedom for the Jew
again in all Arabia. They are generally heavily taxed,
have no redress against abuse and repression and are
looked down upon by all the Moslem population. In the
capital city of Sanaa they are not even allowed to carry
arms or to ride in the streets. They must live in a sep-
arate part of the town and draw water from wells of their
own.

At Aden and in other parts of British Arabia the Jews
are prosperous, but everywhere else their lot is not a
happy one. The total number of Jews in Arabia is per-

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

haps two hundred thousand. One half of them at present
live in Yemen and the rest mostly in Bagdad and Busrah.

The traveller who goes on shore at Aden on his way to
India never fails to meet the Jews. In fact, they besiege
every passing steamer and are anxious to sell their wares,
ostrich eggs, ostrich feathers, coins, and curios. You can
at once tell them from their peculiar habit of wearing two
locks of hair in front of their ears. Many of the Jews in
Arabia are utterly given over to money getting and
worldly pleasures, but others are strong in their religion
and look forward still for the hope of Israel. They are
always glad to purchase the Hebrew Bible and to send
their children to school.

Pray for this despised and rejected people there in
Arabia and everywhere that more may be done for their
salvation and that missionaries may be sent to work
especially for these '4ost sheep of the house of IsraeP^
who have so long been living in the tents of Ishmael !
Perhaps God wants one of you to come out and tell them
the story of Jesus Christ Who must love them more than
we do as He is one of themselves.

VII

AMULETS AND OTHER EVERYDAY THINGS

DID you ever see a woman or a girl dressed in such
a strange way as the one in the picture ? Of
course you know that Moslem women wear
veils, but this veil is like a window-casing with the panes
of glass knocked out. It is made of stiff cloth, heavily
embroidered, sometimes with gilt or silver embroidery,
and [has a nose piece and strings to fasten around the
head. In addition to this curious veil you notice that she
has three bracelets on each arm, and you can get a
glimpse of her nose jewel hanging underneath the veil.
Of course she wears earrings and anklets. The most con-
spicuous part of her jewelry, however, is the amulet case
which hangs by a silver chain from around her neck, and
has beautiful bangles attached to it below. Nearly every
one in Topsy Turvy Land wears amulets. They are worn
not [for ornament, but for protection, and no one would
think of leaving them at home if he went on a journey.

Amulets and charms are worn not only by the Arabs
themselves and to protect their children from the evil eye,
but they are put over the doors of their houses, and hung
on camels, donkeys, horses, fishing boats, in fact, any-
where and everywhere to ward off danger and death.
Only yesterday a little boy came to our church service,
whose mother is still a Moslem, and he had hanging from

A Woman of the Hill Tribes, showing- veil and amulets worn

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA
his neck a whole collection of curious things, beads,
bones, sacred relics, etc., all to protect him from the evil
eye.

All sorts of things are used as amulets in Arabia, and
their use is justified by the saying of Mohammed himself :
" There is no wrong in using charms and spells so long as
you do not associate anything with God.'' The most
common things used as amulets are a small Koran
suspended in a silver case ; words from the Koran written
on paper and carried in a leather receptacle ; the names of
Allah or their numerical value ; the names of Mohammed
and his companions ; precious stones with or without
inscriptions ; beads ; old coins ; clay images ; the teeth of
wild animals ; holy earth from Mecca or Kerbela in the
shape of tiny bricks, or in small bags. When the Kaaba
covering at Mecca is taken down each year and renewed, the
old cloth is cut up into small pieces and sold for charms.
The women in Mecca use an amulet of special power
called ^'Mishkash," which is supposed to exercise its
virtue for the increase of the family. The '' Mishkash "
is really a copy of an old Venetian coin, representing the
Duke of Venice kneeling before St. Mark on the one side,
and on the other side is the image of Christ surrounded
by stars. Of course the women themselves are in total
ignorance of the inscription on the coin and of its Chris-
tian character.

According to the principles of Islam only verses from
the Koran should be used, but the door of superstition

49.

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once beiDg set ajar by Mohammed himself, as we know
from the story of his life, it is now wide open. The
chapters from the Koran which are most often selected for
use as amulets and put in the little cases shown in the
picture are Surahs I, VI, XVIII, XXXVI, XLIV, LV,
LXVII, LXXVIII. There are five verses in the Koran
called the verses of protection, ^' Ayat-el-Hifdh," which
are the most powerful to defend from evil. They read as
follows : ^ ' The preservation of heaven and earth is no
burden unto Him 5" ^^God is the best protector;'^
*'They guard him by the command of God;" ''We
guard him from every stoned devil;" ''A protection
from every rebellious devil." These verses are written
with great care and with a special kind of ink by those
who deal in amulets, and are then sold for a good price
to Moslem women and children. The ink used for
writing amulets is saffron water, the juice of onions,
water from the sacred well of Zem Zem, and sometimes
even human blood. It is very important that the one
who writes the amulet be a holy man in the Moslem sense
of that word. We are told in Arabic books on the sub-
ject (and these books are printed by the thousands) that
" The diet of the one who prepares charms depends on the
kind of names of God which he intends to write or recite.
If they are the terrible attributes of Allah, then he must
refrain from the use of meat, fish, eggs, honey and musk.
If they are His amiable attributes, he must abstain from
butter, curds, vinegar, salt and ambergris."

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

A R A B I A

A favourite kind of amulet is called the magic square,
and I have drawn one here for you. Most of the Arabs
believe that there are only four elements, earth, air, fire
and water, and under these four names they have numer-
ical squares, as you see them, of the numbers one to six-
teen, and whichever way you add the columns up and
down or across the total is always thirty-four. Try it.

EARTH

WATER

AIR

FIRE

Among the Shiah Moslems, whom we meet everywhere
in East Arabia, the most common amulet is called Xadi-

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA
AU, It consists generally of a lead or silver plate with
little bells at the bottom, inscribed with these words ;

* ' Cry aloud to Ali ; he is the possessor of wonders,
From him you will find help from trouble.
He takes away very quickly all grief and anxiety
By the mission of Mohammed and his own sanctity."

There are innumerable cases where such amulets are
used for the cure of disease. The native doctors firmly
believe that when every remedy fails, the book of Allah,
if properly administered, internally or externally, will
drive away pain and cure the patient.

The hospitals and book -shops and schools will doubt-
less in time drive out the use of amulets in Arabia, and
the march of civilization, with its modern scientific
miracles and spirit of investigation, is also a means to that
end. Nevertheless, I have known of cases where printed
Arabic gospels were bought to be used as amulets and
where patients tried to rub off ink from the printed paper
used to wrap i3owders in at the hospital, in order to drink
the solution as a remedy.

There are other things in Arabia which, though not

amulets, will strike you as very strange. First there is

the market basket, deftly woven out of palm leaves.

When this is smeared with bitumen inside, it will hold

water as well as an American pail or a bucket. The

Arab broom is made of palm leaf fibre, with a short

handle, and the dish cover below it is also made of palm

fibre and rope, and is beautifully stained with colours,

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA
and when tliey bring in a disli of Hassa dates to enter-
tain guests, sucli a cover is always put on to protect it
from the flies.

The sewing basket and the fan and the woman^s sandals
are also very interesting. The men's sandals, as well as
the women^s sandals, have a peg or leather thong, which
goes between the big toe and the one next to it, and by
which they cling to their footgear in a way that would
surprise you. Because the women's slippers are made of
wood, you can hear their footsteps when they are a great
way off, and the clap- clap of the women's sandals is a
familiar sound to all of us here in Arabia.

What do you think of their beautiful furniture ? There
are small tables used to hold water jars or trays of food,
and folding bookstands cleverly made out of one piece of
hard wood that fold up for a journey. Larger bookstands
are made of date sticks and are strong enough to support
a big volume of the Koran. The Arabs love to sit and
swing back and forth as they chant its chapters. And
lastly is something that looks very much like an amulet,
but which is a traveller's bag for bread and dates, often
fastened to the camel saddle by leather thongs. Bread
or dates kept in such a receptacle will keep moist for
many, many hours in the hot, dry climate of Arabia.

The Arabs are not skilled as the Japanese and Chinese
are with tools, nor are they much given to art of any kind,
but you must admit that such every- day things are many
of them artistic and some of them really beautiful.

vni

THE MOST WONDEEFUL STONE IN THE WOELD

HE Ten Commandments were written on two
■ tables of stone but these original stones are lost ;

-■- the High Priest Aaron had twelve most precious
stones in his breast plate when he went into the holy place
to minister ; Jacob placed a stone for a pillow when he
fled from his brother, but no one has found this old
memorial. Many other wonderful stones are held almost
sacred because of past history. Stone worship is one of
the oldest forms of idolatry. The old Druid stone in
England, where the priests offered sacrifice during their
worship and where even human blood was spilt in the
name of religion, are examples.

Plymouth Eock is also a famous stone from its part in
history. It marks the place where the Pilgrim fathers
landed in 1620. There have also been precious stones
which have had a remarkable history and for which much
money and often life was sacrificed, and then none of the
boys can forget the pebble which David found in the
brook and which was the weapon of his victory over great
Goliath.

But the most wonderful stone in the world to-day is

none of these that I have told you of. It is the Black

Stone of the old idol temple in Arabia, now the centre of

Mohammedan worship.

Ever\(lav tliinus in Arabi:i

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ARABIA
The greater number of the tribes of Arabia in Moham-
med's day, if they had any religion at all, were little
better than fetich worshippers, each tribe having its own
idol or god, which in many cases was some peculiar tree
or rock in their territory, around which they built rude
shrines, and to which they made pilgrimages. From
time immemorial, however, there was one fetich which the
whole race seemed to regard as peculiarly sacred, and that
was the Kaaba, or sacred stone of Mecca. It is probable
that this stone was a shooting star, which, falling from
heaven in the presence of spectators, became ever after an
object of superstitious veneration, just as the stone of
Diana of Ephesus became the centre of worship for the
Greek world. The tribe to which Mohammed belonged
had held for several generations the office of stewards
to this great national shrine, to encourage the flocking
of pilgrims to the Kaaba. From this source the wealthy
families of Mecca got the great part of their money.
They admitted impartially figures of all the idols of the
tribes from one end of Arabia to the other, so that each
man might feel at home when he arrived there for his
devotions.

When Mohammed had fully established his new religion
he turned out all the old deities except the Black Stone,
which he himself worshipped, and concerning which wor-
ship he left minute directions for his followers. Such
was the inconsistency of the prophet whose creed was
*' There is no god but Allah." The object of the pil-

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grimage as instituted by Mohammed was to worship the
Sacred Mosque and Kaaba. According to Moslem
writers, the Kaaba was built by Adam, exactly under
the spot occupied by God's throne in heaven. It is an
oblong building in the centre of the mosque, covered with
a black cloth, and in it is the sacred Black Stone which
came down from heaven snow-white, and was turned
black by the sins of the people.

The Black Stone is located on the southeast corner of
the Kaaba, about five feet from the ground. It is prob-
ably an aerolite, black and sprinkled with lighter patches
and came down as a falling star. Many years after
Mohammed's death it was stolen by some of the Arabs on
the Persian Gulf and carried across the desert to Katif ;
when it was carried back again it fell from the camel on
its long journey and was broken. Now a silver band
holds the pieces together and the whole stone is im-
bedded in the wall.

It is necessary for every Moslem to visit Mecca at least
once during his lifetime. When all these pilgrims ar-
rive within a short distance of the Holy City, they must
put off their every-day clothing and put on the pilgrim
garb, which consists of two pieces of white cloth, — one
tied around the loins and the other drawn over the shoul-
ders, under their arm, leaving one shoulder bare. The
pilgrims are allowed to wear sandals, but not shoes.
Thus clad every one goes in turn to the sacred well of
Zem Zem, washes his whole body with a pailful of the

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water, and then drinks as much, as he cares. Then he
enters the ^^ door of peace " and kisses the most wonder-
ful stone in the world, running around the Kaaba seven
times and each time when he passes the stone he strokes
it with his hand or kisses it. After this all the Moslem
pilgrims say the regular prayer and retire.

The next day, those who are seeking Paradise along the
zigzag road of Mohammed's religion must do other things
as well. They must visit the place where Abraham is
supposed to have stood, when he rebuilt the Kaaba.
Then they must run between the mountains of Safa and
Milra, two little hills near Mecca, and do other things
every day until the sixth day, when all the pilgrims
surround the Kaaba as they did on the first day. On
the seventh day the sermon is preached from the great
pulpit in the middle of the building. The preacher no
doubt urges all those who are present to persevere in their
religion and make converts among the nations. It is a
large gathering indeed which comes to Mecca. Between
seventy and eighty thousand people travel every year to
visit the city from every part of the Moslem world, —
Europe, Asia, Africa and the islands of the sea. After
the sermon is over two more days are spent in various
visits to' sacred places around Mecca and then comes the
greatest day of all, which is celebrated all over the
Moslem world, namely, the day of Sacrifice.

Although Mohammedans deny the death of Christ
and the need of an atonement for sin, it is strange that

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this great feast should still be a feast of sacrificej like
that of the Jews of old. Every earnest believer takes a
goat, a sheep or a camel, places it so as to face the Kaaba
and plunges a knife into its throat as he cries out — ^^ God
is great and Mohammed is His apostle." When the
sacrifice is over the pilgrim is allowed again to shave his
beard and trim his nails and put on his ordinary cloth-
ing, all of which was forbidden during the ten days of
pilgrimage. He is also given a certificate stating that he
has finished the pilgrimage and is now ready for Para-
dise, or words to that effect.

The most of the pilgrims who come back from Mecca
are not any better for going, because the city is the centre
not only of diseases such as cholera and plague, which
cause the death of many, but is also the centre of im-
morality and wickedness.

Although travellers have visited Mecca by pretending
to be Mohammedans and at the risk of their lives, no
Christian, were he known to be so, would be allowed to
enter the sacred city. The first European to visit Mecca
was an English sailor boy, called Joseph Pitts, who was
captured as a slave in Algiers and taken to Mecca against
his will. He was forced to become a Moslem, but after-
wards escaped to England and wrote a book on what he
had seen.

The new railroad which is now being built by the
Turkish government from Damascus to Medina and on to
Mecca will soon be completed, and who can say whether

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

A R A B I A

it will not open up the whole country to the Gospel ?
A big American locomotive will soon be puffing steam
and sounding its whistle right near the Kaaba, over
against the most wonderful stone in the world.

IX
THE CAMEL DRIVER WHO BECAME A PROPHET

IF one could have all the boys of the world pass by in
single file and take down their names one by one,
there would be a great many who bore the same
name. Johns and Henrys and Carls and Hans there
would be by the thousands, but there would be no name
which so many boys had in common, I am sure, as the
name of Mohammed. It is a very safe estimate to say
that there are living in the world to-day no less than five
million boys and men who bear that name.

Yet I wonder how many of you know who Mohammed
was, where he lived and died, and why he has such a
world-wide reputation ? He was a poor orphan ; his
father died before he was born and his mother only a few
years after, but although he was so forlorn and lived in a
very barren part of Arabia, in one of the valleys of the
city of Mecca, he had powerful relatives who were kind
to him and helped him. He was born in the year
570 A. D., about a thousand years before Columbus dis-
covered America. His mother's name was Amina, which
means faithful.

There are many strange stories told about him when he
was a boy. One story is that while he was away in the
desert with his foster brother, living with the Arab tribes
and growing strong by exercise and drinking camels'

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milk, one day two men dressed in white came and threw
him on the ground. They then took out his heart, by
opening his breast, and squeezed out a droi> of black
blood, and put the heart back again, closing up the
wound. The Arabs believe that in this way he got rid of
his original sin and was made pure. As a boy he was
pleasing and industrious, and won the name of *'the
faithful one.'^ However, at the time of Mohammed's
childhood, morals and manners in Mecca were as bad as
possible, and he did not have many good influences to
help him in the right way.

When he was about twelve years old, his uncle, Abu-
Talib, took him along on a journey to Syria, as far as
Bozra, a town that is mentioned in the Bible, and not the
same as Busrah on the Persian Gulf. This journey lasted
for some months, and it was at this time that Mohammed
met a Christian monk, who, it is reported, told Abu-
Talib to take good care of the youth, for great dignity
awaited him.

On this journey Mohammed for the first time came in
touch with Christianity, and was surely impressed by^the
national and social customs of Christians ; and being a
bright boy, he was easily able to see the difference be-
tween the habits and religion of his own nation and those
of the Christians. It was after this journey that he was
anxious to reform the dreadful idolatry and wicked ways
of the Arabian people. From the age of twelve to twenty
he lived in the usual manner of the boys of his day, tend-

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ing sheep on the hillsides and valleys of Mecca, and he
was so honest and pure and fair during these years, and
such a contrast to those around him, that everybody gave
him the name I told you of — Al Amin, i. e., ** the faith-
ful." During this time, too, he learned something of
what war was like, for he went with his uncles on two
expeditions to fight against another tribe. When Mo-
hammed was twenty-five years old, his uncle suggested
that he should take charge of a caravan for a rich lady
living in Mecca, and trading products of Mecca for other
things from Syria and other parts of Arabia. On this
journey Mohammed again came in contact with Chris-
tians and Jews, and he must have noticed, too, how,
while professing to serve and love the one true God, they
always seemed to be quarrelling about their religion.
Perhaps he saw the truth in both systems and afterwards
thought he could make out of them one simple creed and
unite all mankind in the worship of the only true God.

After his return from this trip, he was married to Kha-
dijah, by whom he had been employed as camel driver,
making zigzag journeys across the country to sell and ex-
change his merchandise. After his marriage he lived
happily, so we are told, until his fortieth year, when he
began to have dreams, and became persuaded that God
had called him to be a prophet. Many Verses of the
Koran were recited and written down. Mohammed
wanted most of all at this time that his countrymen should

put away their idols and worship only Allah, but some

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of them were very angry and would have killed him, if
he had not hidden.

Mohammed and Khadijah had six children, but most of
them died when they were young. His daughter Fatimah,
when she was old enough, was married to her adopted
brother, Ali ; her name is very much honoured and used
by Moslems everywhere.

Sometimes Mohammed would have his dreams very
often, and then again he would go a long time without a
revelation. But he began to believe in himself and told
his visions to others, and they too began to believe in
him as a prophet of God. His relatives were the first
ones to come out and follow the new religion. He wanted
to take the idols out of the Kaaba at Mecca, and preached
against idolatry, and for this reason the keepers of the
Kaaba were very angry and persecuted him for his preach-
ing. When the persecution became too bad, he then re-
canted or withdrew some of his statements in regard to the
idols and the true worship, and he told them he had had
a vision or revelation that they might retain their most
important gods, or rather, the favourite ones. But after
a few days he repented of this leniency, and told the
Meccans he had made a mistake and all the idols must be
destroyed, and they must worship Allah only. The peo-
ple began to treat him badly and they would have killed
him if he had not fled to Medina. The persecutors fol-
lowed him and nearly overtook him, when he came to a
cave and slipped inside, and one tradition says that after

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the prophet (on him be prayers and peace) had gone in-
side, some pigeons came and sat on the edge of the cave ;
also a spider quickly wove a web across the mouth of the
cave and when his pursuers came and looked they said :
"He is not in there, for see the pigeons and the spider's
web ; he cannot be inside, '^ and thus God preserved the
life of Mohammed. Afterwards those men turned back,
and he came out of the cave and went on to Medina.
And there his religion prospered, and Mohammed saw a
vision of the power he might hold, so little by little the
stern purpose of his life — to cleanse his people from idol
worship — became weaker. He gave in, here a little and
there a little, and gave to his followers many harmful
privileges, which he said were revelations from the Angel
Gabriel to him. These same privileges have degraded
the nations they have governed, and the religion of the
sword and of plunder appealed to the human heart more
than spiritual things possibly could. He soon gained
many thousands of followers, and grew strong and bold,
and began to organize bands to go out and kill and des-
troy all who would not follow the new religion.

And thus the camel driver became a great prophet.
His name to-day is called out five times a day from the
minarets (i e., mosque steeples) in Central Asia, along
the shores of the Mediterranean, in the heart of Africa,
in India and the islands of the sea, as well as all over
Arabia and Persia and the Turkish Empire. And if you
wish to help bring back these nations to Jesus Christ and

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

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away from Mohammed, you must be up with the muezzin
before the dawu, and pray and call others to prayer and
work in earnest, so that the children of this generation
may have a chance to learn about our Saviour and theirs,
and of all the helpful things He has taught us.

" Hark ! 'Tis the muezzin's cry ;

Pray, children, pray ;
Moslems in darkness lie,

Pray, children, pray.
Thousands in bondage die ;
O hear, while moments fly,
Yours is a calling high :

Pray, children, pray."

THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANGELS

THE Arabs are a proud and uoble race. Tliey
are proud of their liberty and of their free open-
air desert customs. They are proud of their
religion and of their prophet. They are proud of their
history and of their patriarchal descent. But most of
all, they are proud of their language, one of the oldest
and most wonderful forms of human speech. Mohammed
himself in his Koran, which you know is the Moslem
Bible, speaks of the Arab tongue as ^^ the language of the
angels." He and the Arabs believed that Adam and
Eve spake Arabic in Paradise, and that the language of
revelation in which God spoke to His prophets, Abraham,
Moses and Solomon, was none other than the language of
the desert, the speech of the Arabs.

One of the most learned Arabs who lived about three
hundred years after Mohammed said: *' The wisdom of
God hath come down upon three things : — the brain of
the Franks, the hand of the Chinese and the tongue of
the Arabs. ' ' What this Arab philosopher meant was that
while the people of Europe are distinguished for their
power of invention and discovery, the Chinese are dis-
tinguished as artists and artisans, but the Arabs are all
of them born orators and poets. The people of Europe,
he meant to say, have brain power, the people of the

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Orient skill in handicraft, but the Arabs, eloquence.
If you will read the Book of Job, which was doubtless
written in Arabia and describes early Arabian life, or
read the latter chapters of Mohammed's Koran, or better
still some of the Arabian poetry, you will appreciate the
truth of this wonderful statement.

The first thing that is remarkable about the language
of the Arabs is its wide-spread use. Like English it has
spilled itself all over the map of the world, far beyond its
original limits, and like English it was carried by com-
merce and by conquest, by merchants and by mission-
aries.

Some time ago an American typewriter firm in adver-
tising a machine with Arabic characters made the state-
ment that the Arabic alphabet is used by more people
than any other alphabet in the world. Some one thought
that this was an exaggeration, and asked a professor of
languages, "How big a lie is thatV He answered:
"It is true." The total population of all the countries
whose inhabitants use the Arabic "ABC "—if they use
any at all — is larger than the number of those who use
the Latin alphabet or the Chinese character. The Arabic
Koran is read by the Moslem boys in the day-schools not
only of Arabia, but of Turkey, of Afghanistan, Persia,
Java, Sumatra, the whole of North Africa and through-
out Central Asia. In the Philippine Islands there are
three hundred thousand Mohammedans whose only
alphabet came from Arabia, and as far west as the

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ARABIA

••^V^ -^<

FIRST CHAPTER OF THE KORAN

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ARABIA

mosques of Morocco the Arabic toDgue has travelled and
become the language of law and commerce and religion.

When the early Arabs in their conquests crossed the
strait between Africa and Spain and conquered that
country they left many words behind. And therefore
many of the place names in Spain to-day are Arabic.
Gibraltar, for example, is the corrupted form of Jebel
Tarik, which means the mountain of Tarik, the Arab
general who first crossed the straits with his soldiers.
And Quadiliquiver, one of the rivers of Spain, should be
spelled Wady El Kebir, or the Big Eiver.

Even the English language has a number of words that
came as Arab guests to the feast of reason and have been
adopted into our family and put into our dictionary.
When you speak of algebra^ ciphers^ zerOy alchemy^ alcove^
minaret, alcohol^ coffee, sofa, amher, artichoJces, gazelles or
magazine you are using good Arabic words which nearly
every Arab would understand. To use these words,
however, is quite a different thing from speaking *'the
language of the angels '^ correctly. It is easier to borrow
a carpenter^ s jack-knife than to acquire his skill in build-
ing a house. Many languages have borrowed from the
Arabs and the Arabs have borrowed from them in return,
but no language is richer than the Arabic in its number
of words.

Would you like to know how the boys and girls talk in
Arabia? If you have read ^'Topsy Turvy Land" you
will remember how they write their words backward and

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begin to read at what we call tlie end of the book. Their
talk as well as their writing seems to us at first very
topsy turvy. Of course, I need not tell you how much
they talk, for in that respect they are just like the boys
and girls in America. As they speak a language, how-
ever, very different from English, I am sure you would
like to hear a little about it. Arabic is oue of the oldest
and most beautifnl languages, and also one of the hardest
to learn. It has so many words that their name for a
dictionary is ^'Kamoos,'' which means ''an ocean. '^
They have five hundred different names for a lion and
two hundred words for serpent. It is said that there are
one thousand different terms in Arabic for sivordj and
eighty different words for honey.

Like English the Arabic language has grammar with
many rules (and more exceptions) and the boys dislike it
just as much as some of you do. They have a severe
struggle with the alphabet because each letter has three
different forms, as it is used in the beginning, the middle
or the end of a word ; and then there are but fifteen con-
jugations and twenty different ways of forming the plural,
not to speak of all the moods and tenses and the irregular
verbs.

Some people think that Arabic is the most difficult
language in the world. Keith Falconer, the first mis-
sionary to Arabia, said, ''Arabic grammars should be
strongly bound because learners are so often found to
dash them frantically on the ground." Another mis-

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sionary said that he would rather cross Africa from
Alexandria to the Cape of Good Hope than undertake a
second time to master the Arabic speech.

I shall never forget my early struggles with the lan-
guage, nor the place where I sat down to learn my
lesson with Dr. Cornelius Van Dyke. He was a master
of Arabic and with Dr. Eli Smith translated the whole
Bible into the Arabic speech. Here it was in the shade
of his beautiful veranda at Beirut, Syria, that I began to
learn the irregular verb. It takes a long time for
grown-up people to learn a new language, but it does not
seem hard for the Arab boys and girls.

Beside the proper talk of grown-up people there is baby
talk in Arabia which mothers teach the little brown
toddlers before they walk out of the mat- huts and the
black, camel-hair tents into the wide world. Yes, and
there are also slang words which the camel drivers and
the donkey boys use with and on each other.

The baby talk is much like English. Father is hdba ;
dog is ivotvivoiv ; pretty is noonoo ; stop is tootoo ; chicken
is JcooJcoOy and when baby falls they say baff!

The language of these little angels and the grown-up
ones in Arabia is very poetical. The Arabs, because
they live in the desert and look up into the big, blue sky
and far out to the horizon where the mirage paints desert
pictures every day, are full of imagination and live in an
atmosphere of poetry. They love jingling words and
proverbs and pretty sayings and figures of speech.

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A mosquito has only a sting in New Jersey. In Arabia
they call him aboofaSy which means *'father-of-an-ax" !
In America a tramp is a tramp, but the Arabs call him a
son- of -the- road. And what could be prettier than their
name for echo, bint-el-jebel, *' daughter of the mountain " ?
Why, there is a whole fairy story in that one word ! And
if you go down the columns of the Arabic dictionary you
can find many a story locked up in some word and only
waiting to be opened.

In North Arabia when they say, "How-do-you-do,"
the proper expression is, ' ' What is the colour of your
condition? " This may be philosophical, but it does not
make good sense in English. Strawberries are called
French mulberries, and the name given to potatoes when
first brought to Bahrein was aliyeywellam; why this name
was given, I cannot tell. Where could you find a better
name for wine than the Arab um-el-Jcliabaith, *' mother of
vices" ? No wonder all the Arab children are staunch
prohibitionists. And you will know more about the
nights in Arabia when I tell you that the common name
for jackal is ^'' son- of -howling'''' !

"The language of the angels " is not altogether lovely
and beautiful ; alas, it bears the marks of a false religion
all over it like scratches on marble or ink-stains on a
beautiful piece of handwriting. Mohammed's life and
Mohammed's teaching were not like the life and teaching
of Jesus Christ, and so the Arabic language abounds in
words that are not pure and not lovely. The mission-

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aries in Egypt and in Syria have done much to purify
and elevate the language of the Arabs by giving them
Christian books and papers and above all the Holy Bible
in their own tongue. The Arab children in the mission
schools now sing Christian hymns and many of the stories
that you love to read, such as ''Ben Hur" and "Black
Beauty '^ and ''Eobinson Crusoe,'^ have been translated
into Arabic. At the Beirut [press alone about twenty-
five million pages of Christian books are printed every
year.

When the Bible takes the place of the Koran, the Arab
speech with all its beauty and strength will become more
than ever "the language of the angels."

XI
PEAELS AND PEAEL DIVEES

NEAELY all the British India steamers in their
zigzag journeys up the Persian Gulf, calling
first at the Arabian coast and then at the
Persian coast, stop at the pearl islands of Bahrein. Half-
way up the Gulf and thirty miles from the mainland of
Arabia, this group of islands has been famous for cen-
turies as the most valuable pearl fishery in the world.
For at least two thousand years the Arabs have been
diving in these waters and bringing up the costly shells.
Before the days of Christ, and even before the time of
Solomon, pearls from Bahrein were shipped to the West-
ern world, and it is probable that the dress and the con-
versation of the men and the boys of to-day is about the
same as it was a thousand years ago. The boats are
probably of the same pattern, with very little improve-
ment.

Bahrein is an Arabic word which means the two seaSy
and this name was given to the islands because the Arabs
fancied that here two seas met, the fresh water and the
salt water mingling together. The islands have very
little rainfall — during the summer none at all — and yet
they are famous for their fresh-water springs, which find
their source on the mainland of Arabia or Persia, and
the water not only bubbles out in pools and wells on

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shore, but below the tide level there are fresh-water
springs several miles out at sea. You would be inter-
ested to see the Arabs go out in their boats, place a bam-
boo over the opening in the rock and then collect fresh
water above sea level in their great leather skins.

Bahrein is historically most interesting, because here the
old Chaldeans and Phoenicians made their home. Some
of the mounds on the island are older than the ruins of
Babylon, and it is said that the Phoenicians worshipped
the fish- god who, it is supposed, carried Noah's ark over
the flood.

The pearl fisheries at Bahrein employ about 3,500
boats, large and small. The boats measure from one to
fifty tons. The smaller boats carry from three to fifteen
men and work near the shore ; the large boats, employing
from fifteen to thirty men, fish all over the Gulf. It is a
pretty sight to see the fleet sailing out of the harbour,
the large sails, set to the wind, gleaming white in the
sun, the blue waters underneath and the bluer sky over-
head. Have you ever seen a diving outfit? It looks
rather ungainly to me. The Arab divers do not use any-
thing so elaborate as do the divers in America. White
overalls to cover their dark skin (because they say sharks
do not care for white people), a/ct^am, or clothes-pin on
the nose, and leather thimbles for scratching up the
shells, and a basket to hold the catch, with a rope at-
tached to a girdle to draw them up with— this is the
complete outfit. When prayers have been said and a

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Blsmillahy down he goes, quickly fills the basket, and
with a tug on the rope, he is hauled up, his basket is
emptied while he takes a short breathing spell, then
down again ; and so on from sunrise to sunset.

The divers pass through many dangers in bringing the
pearls from the bottom of the ocean to the surface.
Sharks are the most terrifying, and during the pearl
season a number of divers lose their lives, or are maimed ;
a leg or an arm has to be amputated because the cruel,
sharp, powerful mouth of the shark caught the fisherman
while he was seeking goodly pearls for us. A large
number of them are afflicted with rheumatism as a con-
sequence of their calling. In the boat, besides the men
who are doing the work, is a man who is a substitute for
them in prayer. The divers are too busy to observe the
stated hours of prayer, so this man will repeat the prayers
in place of each man. He is the Levite, and performs the
religious ceremonies for every other man and boy. He
must be occupied all the time on the boats where there is
a crew of thirty men, and he must say the prayers five
times a day for each man.

The Arabs say that pearls come from a raindrop which
fell while the oyster had its mouth open ; each drop of
rain thus caught is a prize for the diver. ''Heaven born
and cradled in the deep blue sea," it is the purest of gems
and, in their eyes, the most precious. When the pearl
oysters are brought up, they are left on deck over night,
and next morning are opened by means of a curved knife

The Evolution of a Pearl Button

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ARABIA

six inches long. Until a few years ago, all the shells were
thrown back into the sea as useless, but now they are
brought to shore by the ton and deposited in some mer-
chant's yard. He employs natives to scrape off the out-
side roughness, and then they are packed in wooden
crates and exported in large quantities.

On shore the pearls are classified according to weight,
size, shape, colour and brilliancy. You would think the
pearl merchants a strange kind of people. They carry
the most valuable pearls around with them everywhere,
tied up in turkey-red twill. They have no safes nor
banks, so the only safe way they can think of is to carry
them around and run the risk of being knocked down
and robbed ; but since the Indian government has made
Bahrein a protectorate, such robberies are rare.

The pearl merchants are called tawaivis, which means
those who handle the brass sieve, or tas. When the
pearls are brought on shore, they are classified according
to size first of all, and to do this, each merchant has a
nest of beautiful sieves fitting one into the other. The
sraallest has holes as big as the end of a pencil, and they
go down gradually in size until the largest sieve, which is
about six inches across, has holes as fine as mustard seeds.
Any day during the pearl season you may see the Arab
merchants sitting cross-legged in their houses, sifting
pearls, and when they are classified and piled up in little
heaps, white and shining in the bright sunlight on the
red cloth that covers the floor, it is a sight worth seeing.

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ARABIA

The total value of the pearl harvest each year is at least
a million dollars, but most of the profit goes into the
hands of the dealers. The divers work for wages, and
many of them are heavily in debt. In spite of the dangers
they incur, the divers love their work, because pearl div-
ing always has in it the element of gambling. One may
work a whole day and find only pearls of small value,
and then perhaps bring up a fortune in an hour. The
most beautiful pearl I ever saw was found in the waters
at Bahrein some ten years ago, and was sold for ten thou-
sand dollars. It must have been to such a fortunate pearl
diver that Browning referred in his verses :

" There are two moments in a diver's life :
One when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge,
Then when, a prince, he rises with his prize."

The time for pearl diving is from May until the end of
September. During the winter months the cold weather
interferes with the work, and the men live inshore.
Then it is that they come in crowds to our hospital, and
we have the joy of preaching to them from the parable of
the Pearl of great price, and no audience appreciates a
sermon on that text as much as the men who know what
it costs to bring up the pearls. You remember the par-
able : ''The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that
is a merchant seeking goodly pearls, and having found
one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had
and bought it.'^ When we tell the Arabs that the Pearl

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

of great price was the kingdom of God, peace and right-
eousness and joy, which Jesus Christ purchased for us at
the cost of His own life and now offers freely to all who
will believe in Him, they understand something of the
message.

Will you not pray for the pearl divers of Bahrein that
many of them may find the Pearl of great price, and that
their humble homes, — mat-huts along the shore of the
great sea — may be made glad by the joy of a Christian
civilization and the knowledge of our Saviour ? It is not
hard to love them for their own sake, and I well remem-
ber many a happy hour spent with them in their boats or
sitting on the beach, talking over their work. Sir Edwin
Arnold referred to them in these lines :

" Dear as the wet diver to the eyes
Of his pale wife, who waits aud weeps on shore,
By sands of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf ;
Plunging all day in the blue waves ; at night,
Having made up his toll of precious pearls,
Rejoins her in their hut upon the shore."

XII

A PIONEER JOUENEY ON THE PIRATE COAST

IT was on Saturday morning, February 9, 1901,
that Elias, our colporteur, and I started for a jour-
ney along the eastern coast of Arabia, and, as we
hoped, inland. Oiir expectations of a long camel journey
and the sight of villages not yet marked on the map be-
tween the coast and Muscat were disappointed. But the
result was a journey of 440 miles and more along the coast
to the rocky cape that guards the narrow entrance to the
Gulf. Our experiences were so interesting that I will re-
late some of them to you.

Did you ever read the droll story, ^' Three Men in a
Boat" ? "Well, we were eleven men in a boat, not to
speak of a fine Arab horse and a yelping greyhound, pres-
ents from the Ruler of Bahrein to the Ruler of Abu
Thabi. Our boat was of the usual native style without
any cabin or even an awning, and'measured twenty feet
across the beam and fifty from bowsprit to poop. The
noble quadruped had the largest share of the scanty space
midships ; the dog was confined to the forecastle lest
prayers be impossible ; for the Mohammedans believe
that the dog is an unclean animal, and that it is impos-
sible to pray in any place where a dog has walked or sat
without first washing it. The two first-class passengers
and their boxes were on the left side of the poop j the

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

crew slept, smoked, washed themselves, and ate their
dried fish and rice anywhere ; and the captain with a
priest and a merchant squatted at our right. I will not
weary your patience to relate how many days after we
intended to start the sail was hoisted and we were off.
One never expects a native sailing craft to leave until the
three days of grace (and grumbling impatience) are twice
over. But good Abdullah bin Kambar was not alto-
gether to blame ; two of his sailors ran away, and he had
to look them up and urge them on board. With a fair,
brisk wind filling the huge sail we were all happy to start
and forgot the delays and our dried bread baked three
days too early.

Our boat was bound for Abu Thabi, the first important
town on the coast south. The wind continued favourable,
and on Monday we were sailing between two islands,
mere rocks and uninhabited except by a few fishermen
during the season. A little further towards the mainland
is the large island of Dalma, and there was a long dispute
between the captain and the mate as to which island we
were passing. When the words waxed warm between
them my chart decided the dispute. This island is an old
centre for the pearl-fishers, and every season there is a
large gathering here of merchants and divers ; a sort of
market-place on the highway of the sea.

The weariness of five days and nights in the boat was
relieved in many ways. There was opportunity to read
and plenty of interruption.

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TVe had our meals to cook and tried to fish with a
line and hook j once the ca^Dtain hit a wild duck with his
rusty gun, but although all helped to lower the boat and
they i^ursued the wounded bird, she escaped. One day
we saw a large shark, and that afternoon there were some
good fish stories. At night the black slave Abdullah
sat at the wheel and told stories as only a Negro- Arab can
tell them j stories of the new Arabian Kights, and of how
an Arab sharper stole a favourite horse by putting the
bridle on his own neck and having his mate run off with
the horse ! Several times it was our turn to lead the
conversation, and we had a splendid opportunity to give
'Mine upon line and precept upon precept.'^ One can
judge at once of the ignorance and open-hearteduess of
the Arab sailors by the remark they commonly make
after they have had a missionary or colporteur for pas-
senger : ''"VYe had no idea that Christians were such
decent folk and even prayed to Allah. '^

At three o'clock on Thursday afternoon we were in
sight of Abu Thabi, or '^ father-of-the-gazelle." It was
my first visit to this town, although Elias had been there
before. We found the ruler kind, friendly and very in-
telligent. We were assigned to a large room in one of
his houses, and during our stay of four days there was
abundance of food sent to us from the ruler's table, and
all our wants were supplied from his beneficence, — huge
dishes piled with rice, steeped with gravy and crowned

with several pounds of prime roast mutton, the whole

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARAB ?r A

surrounded witli dates and bread loaves, on a large cir-
cular mat, and washed down with perfumed water. We
were never hungry.

When the dwellers in the mat-huts heard of the arrival
of foreigners with a medicine chest and books our room
was filled with the curious or the ailing from early dawn
until after sunset. That is the only drawback to their
kindness ; the Arab idea of hospitality does not include
the blessing of privacy for their guest. One is never left
alone, and if you seek solitude they set you down as a
magician, or delver into the hidden things of nature which
are forbidden to all true believers. So we had to forego
meditation, reading, and even the change of clothing until
nightfall, after our long sea journey.

It was a queer crowd that collected in the court and
filled our little room j a long row of Arabs sitting on the
mats all around the four sides of the court. Most of
them were Oman Arabs, but there was one priest from
Mecca who had more to say than all the rest. He was a
wanderer who wore a spotless white turban and a sneer-
ing smile. His present residence, he said, was on the
Island of Kais, in the Gulf, and he lived as do all of his
kind by teaching school and copying charms for the
ignorant. We had some discussions and more quiet talks
together after the crowd left. It was sad to hear from
him what dense ignorance there is regarding our religion.
The news of Queen Victoria's death had just reached there

and the sage from Mecca told fabulous stories of how and

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ARABIA

why Christians were ruled by women ! Our sales of
Scripture were not large, but there was a demand for
other books. One poor but learned man brought a manu-
script copy of AI Hariri (the Arabian Shakespeare) in
exchange for other books.

We left Abu Thabi by sailing-boat for Debai, eighty
miles up the coast in a straight line. The wind com-
pelled us to go zigzag.

This place has become the metropolis of Western Oman,
and in population, progress, commerce and architecture
far surpasses all the other towns. Between Abu Thabi
and Debai the coast is desert and neither date- tree nor
hut is seen ; so flat is the country that a hill two hundred
feet high (the only landmark for sailors) is called ''the
High Mountain."

We did not tarry long at Debai, although we had a
pleasant morning at the house of the ruler and met some
Arabs from the interior. One of them said he was will-
ing for a proper consideration to take me all the way
across Arabia to Jiddah, the port of Mecca. In the after-
noon we started selling Scriptures on the outskirts of the
town and in a very short time the crowd collected.
Women came with copper coins and bright boys brought
their savings to purchase Gospels — in the language of our
trade, ''the true story of the Living Prophet Jesus."
After we left Debai on donkeys two boys who were late
ran after us and overtook us a mile from the town ; they

brought money and paid for three more books. The

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

captain of our boat took us to his house for breakfast on
our arrival, and showed us some poetry his wife had
written. She talked with us and seemed versed in the
Koran ; we left her a Gospel.

From Debai to Sharkeh we rode on asses, and as our
two chests were heavy they were put, one each, on the
backs of two other asses ; the distance is about ten miles.
At Sharkeh we met old friends and were glad that even
after a previous visit we were welcomed. An Arab
merchant showed us much kindness and offered us a shop
with a prophet's chamber above it for rent. Since this
visit our missionaries often come here. From Sharkeh
we crossed over to Lingah, and thence back to Bahrein
by the mail steamer, but Elias went on visiting Ajman
and the villages beyond all the way to Eas-el- Jebel, which
means '^ the top of the mountain.'^ The Arabic version
of the seventy-second Psalm gives the promise in this
way : ^' There shall be an handful of corn in the earth on
Eas-el- Jebel jthe fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon."

XIII
ACEOSS THE DESEET OF OMAN

OMAN is a little peninsula that sticks out eastward
from the big peninsula of Arabia, and it might
almost be called an island. On three sides are
the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, and
on the west is the great sea of sand which the Arabs call
the ''empty abode,'' and which has never been crossed by
any traveller as far as we know. The Arabs themselves
are afraid to venture beyond the limits of the oases that
touch its borders, and on all the maps of Arabia this
desert is marked ' ' blank and unexplored. ' ' Because the
people of Oman for centuries past lived on such an island
with the sea on one side and the desert on the other, they
are quite distinct from the other Arabs. The language
they speak has a peculiar accent, and their religion,
although they are Mohammedans, is in many respects
different from that of the other parts of Arabia.

I want to tell you of two journeys taken across this
province. Many others have been made since, and our
medical missionaries can now visit all the villages in the
mountains back of the coast. On May 9, 1900, a colpor-
teur and I put our two chests of books and medicines on
board a small sailing-boat, and at four o'clock the wind

was favourable to leave Bahrein harbour. We intended

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ARABIA

to visit the pirate coast, and thence, if the way proved
open, to cross the horn of Oman to Muscat, overland.

The captain and crew of our boat were all strict
Moslems, and made no secret of the fact that formerly
they were slave-traders. Crossing by zigzag lines to the
Persian coast to avoid shoals and catch the wind, we
reached Bistana and then sailed across the Gulf direct for
Sharkeh. Half-way across is the little island of Abu
Musa, with a small Arab population, but splendid
pasturage, good milk and water. The chief export is red
oxide, of which there are two hills with a boundless
supply. Steamers occasionally call here for this cheap,
marketable ballast j we left our witness in the shape of
Arabic Gospels.

On May 14th we reached Sharkeh, the chief town on

the pirate coast. Formerly this entire region was noted

for the savage ferocity of its inhabitants. Thanks to

English commerce and gunboats, these fanatic people

have become tamed ; most of them have given up piracy

and turned to pearl-diving for a livelihood j their black

tents and rude rock dwellings are making room for the

three or four important towns of Sharkeh, Debai, Abu

Thabi, and Eas el Kheima. We found the Arabs rather

hospitable, and quite willing to hear our message. The

mat-hut, set apart for our use, we for seven days made

dispensary and reception-room. Here over two hundred

Arabs came to get medicines, buy books, or discuss the

reason of our errand. Many were the quiet talks during

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ARABIA

those days with all sorts and conditions of Arabs. There
was often no rest until long after sunset ; and no sooner
had the muezzin called to daylight prayer than the
visitors began to walk in again. They were a pleasant
lot of people, and more sociable than the Arabs of Yemen,
while less dignified than those from Nejd.

We heard on every side that travelling in the interior
of Oman was safe, so, after bargaining with camel- drivers,
we secured two companions and five camels to take us to
Sohar for the sum of twenty rials or Arabian dollars. At
9 p. M. on May 20 th we left, and after a short rest at
midnight to water the camels, marched until nine o^ clock
the next day. By going as much as possible by starlight
to avoid the heat, and resting during the day under some
scraggy acacia tree or in the shadow of a Bedouin fort,
we completed the distance of ninety odd miles in a little
over four days. A large part of the way we took was
desert, with no villages or even nomad booths ; the more
usual route by Wady Hom being a little unsafe, we
followed Wady Hitta.

Sometimes our caravan would pass a camePs skeleton
bleached by the torrid sun. When a camel grows foot-
sore or breaks down, there is no alternative : the poor
beast is left to die in the wilderness. The second day we
passed villages and cultivated fields ; that night we
spread our blankets on the soft sand, surrounded by
thousands of sheep and goats, driven in by Bedouin lasses

from their mountain pastures. Even among these shep-

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

herds we found readers, and the colporteur sold books
wherever the camels halted long enough to strike a bar-
gain. It was late on Wednesday, May 23d, that we
entered the narrow pass of Hitta. Our guides preceded,
mounted, but with rifles loaded and cocked ; then fol-
lowed the baggage camel, to which mine was ^' towed,"
and in similar fashion my companion on the milch camel
followed by its two colts. We were not troubled with the
heat at night, but during the day it was intense, and it
was refreshing to come to an oasis (common in this part
of Oman) where water burst from a big spring, and trees
and flowers grew in luxury. In the mountainous parts
of Oman the roads run almost invariably along sandy
watercourses or deep, rocky ravines. Tamarisks, olean-
ders, euphorbias, and acacias are the most common trees
and shrubs. Where the country appears almost barren,
we were surprised to find a considerable population of
shepherds and goatherds. Their dwellings are mere oval
shanties constructed of boulders or rocks. In the fertile
valleys the population always centres in villages, and
scarcely ever is a dwelling found at any distance from
this common centre.

Just at the top of the pass of Hitta is the village ' Ajeeb,
rightly named '^ wonderful.'^ The view down the moun-
tains over the fertile stretch of coast called the Batinah
and out over the boundless Indian Ocean was grand. We
descended to the sea, and the turbulent mountain stream,
so cold to our bare feet as we waded it in the early dawn,

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ARABIA

dwindled to a brook, aud at last ebbed away along the
beach a tiny stream of fresh water. These pei'ennial
streams are the secret of a coast fertile for nearly a hun-
dred and fifty miles.

At Shinas, on the sea, we spent a hot day. The mosque
was our pulpit and salesroom. One graybeard took us
to his hut after noonday prayer to offer us simple hospi-
tality. He spoke with fervour of my brother, Peter J.
Zwemer, who came to his village three years previous.
From Shinas our camels took us to Sohar. At the large
village of El Wa we were unable to stop, as the camel-
men were afraid of smallpox, which was prevalent there.
Every one we passed on the way was friendly to a re-
markable degree. The women brought fresh milk and
fruit to us ere we dismounted, aud the boys, instead of
mocking the strange foreigners, salaamed^ delighted to
hear that in spite of our appearance we spoke Arabic.
Not one copper did we spend for food and lodging ; it is
the land of large-hearted hospitality. To help a sick
child or give quinine to some ague-tormented Arab was
to them a large return for their kindness to a '^son-of-
the-road."

My second journey across the northern horn of Oman
was made in May, 1901, with the same travelling com-
panion ; and sailing from Bahrein to Abu Thabi we went
straight east to the coast of Oman and then along its
shores all the way to Muscat by camel. It was the long-
est camel journey that ever I made, and when I reached

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

Muscat I was convinced that the camel is not only the
ship, but the hardship of the desert.

The town of Abu Thabi from which we started is situ-
ated on a sort of island formed by the back-water of its

The Missionary Review of the World'

harbour. A chasm about two hundred yards wide, and

even at low water, four or five feet deep protects the

town against desert invasion, and a fort has been built

close to this water barrier. After our camels had waded

through the water breast deep and nearly soaked our

luggage, we began the desert journey. For three hours

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ARABIA

the road was as level as a table and equally barren ; then
we passed some outcropping rocks called the devil's
castle. All that day and the next we rode through
sandy deserts with scarcely any vegetation, resting at
noon under the shade of a blanket roped over our two
boxes. It was hot indeed, and the water in our water
skins had taken on a bad taste after the long and jerky
ride. We had dates and made some soup from con-
densed vegetables, but the Bedouins of our party caught
big lizards and made a boiled mess of them, with rice.
They were displeased that we did not share their meal.

On Sunday we arrived at an Arab encampment and
rested. They made a feast for us of fresh milk, and at
night killed a fat kid, and made cakes baked on hot
ashes. At nine o'clock that night we left our Bedouin
friends, and rode on until past midnight, always due
east by the stars. It was very cold at night in the
desert. These extremes of temperature are trying, but
not unhealthy. The following day we came across a
poor nomad girl who was lost in the desert and nearly
dying of thirst. She had been seeking for a strayed
camel, and had then missed all traces of the road herself.
For two days she had been alone in the desert, and had
almost given up hope. Our guide gave her some water
and dates and showed her the nearest way to the encamp-
ment. All this stretch of country as far as Bereimy is a
wide wilderness of sand for miles and miles in every
direction j not level sand, but sand in big folds and

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

A R A B I A

billows a hundred feet high, that change with every
storm.

It was a delightful change to reach the oasis of Bereimy
with its seven villages, joined by streams of fresh water,
and date plantations, as well as high mango trees and
gardens of vegetables. Beyond this oasis the mountain
road passed numerous villages to Obri and Dank. We
took the shorter road through Wady-el-Jazi, direct to
Sohar. The Arabs in this part of the world are per-
petually at war with each other. Everybody gets up
armed and goes to bed with a rifle by his side. Even
little boys carry a dagger in their belts, and old men will
part with anything rather than their shotguns. We
met with no mishap by the way, however, and reached
Sohar safely, but we did not go to Muscat by sea because
there was no wind. Instead we encouraged each other to
stick to our rough camel saddles for four days more,
which made the entire distance from Abu Thabi to Muscat
nearly three hundred miles.

The whole country is most interesting. In spite of
continual warfare, the peasants seem to find time to cul-
tivate every fertile spot, and raise all sorts of crops.
We saw barley, wheat, sesame, vegetables and even
tobacco. In one village we rested on the wide threshing
floor where the old-fashioned instrument with sharp
teeth, of which the Bible speaks, lay idle. The Oman
plow is much better than those in l^orth Arabia.
There they plow with a crooked stick, whose sharp prong

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ARABIA

is strong enough to break up the sandy loam, but in this
mountain region the peasants make a real coulter of iron
and fit it to a heavy frame, braced to an upright handle
of three bars set at right angles. The dress of the men
and women is quite distinct from that in other parts of
Arabia, and their houses are built like castles. Nearly
every well is protected by a fort, and villages only a mile
or two apart often carry on war with each other for
many, many years. This is the chief obstacle to travel
in the hill country of Oman.

Before you forget our journey across this part of Arabia,
I want you to think of an Arab praying in the desert.
One of the names the Arabs give to the desert is the
^'Garden of Allah," because they say there is nothing but
God ; no other life, or sound or scene to distract one^s at-
tention ; only the great blue vault above, without a cloud,
and the wide stretch of sand and rock all around the
horizon. No wonder that the desert has been God' s train-
ing school for many of His prophets and teachers. Think
of Moses, and Elijah and Paul and Christ.

XIY
JAIL-BIRDS

DID you ever hear of missionaries who were jail-
birds? Well, that has been my experience.
This is how it was.

The day after Christmas about ten years ago it was
decided that we make a tour to the mainland of Arabia
from the island of Bahrein, our station. The picnic
basket was packed with fresh bread and canned meats
and good things, and we also took along extra clothing,
a box of books and some medicines for the people. Our
Arab servant had a hard time of it to secure a boat that
would take us over because the people were still suspicious
of Christians and were not at all anxious to have them
begin work in new places. After a boat had been secured
whose captain was willing for a good consideration to al-
low Christians to travel with him we still waited. When
one travels by native boat in Arabia there is always de-
lay ; it may be a couple of hours or it may be a few days.
Time and tide and the Arab temper are equally unreli-
able in the Persian Gulf. It is no use fussing and get-
ting impatient. That only makes the Arab more im-
movable.

At four o'clock a small boat came as close to the shore
as the water would allow, and then we rode out on donkeys
through the surf to the tossing boat, and in this small

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ARABIA

* 'jolly-boat " we were taken to the native ship where we
settled on the poop-deck with all our belongings. The
deck of this little sailing craft did not measure more than
six feet by four, and so we had to sit close or we would
fall overboard. The man at the tiller can manage on
three or four square inches of room, and his bare toes
cling to the edge of the boat just like a monkey on the
bough of a tree. The sail was hoisted and away we went
for about three hours. Then the wind dropped and we
were becalmed almost in sight of shore until the next
morning. After prayers at daybreak the sail was again
hoisted, and the awkward paddle oars which the Arabs
use were taken out to help increase the speed. Finally,
after a severe struggle we arrived at our destination.

The pretty little town of Darain stood out clearly in
the bright sunlight, and we were glad that at last we were
to reach the mainland of Arabia. I was the first Christian
woman that had ever landed on this part of the coast.
There was a ride through the shallow water of about a
quarter of a mile, and our Arab host was kind enough to
send out a choice of vehicles for my use, — a chair, a horse
and a donkey. I chose the donkey as the safest and
mounted and splashed through the surf to the laud. The
rest of our party followed. We were then conducted to
the guest chamber in the tower, — a large airy room with
about twenty window frames and no windows, only
shutters ; so that when the wind blew the dust from the
desert, the wooden shutters were fastened, and the light

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ARABIA
and air had to be shut out also. Our host was very
cordial and laid no special restraint upon us, although he
too was suspicious that we had come to begin missionary
work in earnest in his village, — a thing which he would
not allow. He treated us royally and with genuine Arab
hospitality, but yet his suspicion was evident because he
kept us away from another guest of his, the Turkish
governor of Katif, as he did not wish him to know that he
had friends among the Christians. After three days of
entertainment we went on board our boat again on the
way to Katif. We landed there in a few hours but found
ourselves in a real *' hornet's nesf Our very best and
most winning smiles could not melt the harshness of the
custom-house officials. They said our passports were not
properly made out, and the motion was soon made and
carried that we should be returned whence we came at
once.

Fortunately, there was no boat ready to take us back,
and it was not our intention to be turned back without at
least attempting to dispose of some of the Gospels which
we had brought with us and to win the confidence of
some of the people. We were not despondent because
even in this inhospitable place there was a man who was
anxious to receive us and who invited us to come and stay
at his home. We were so happy for a few brief hours.
The man's wife prepared a guest meal and received
us very courteously. They gave us a well -furnished
room and we were delighted to see that this Moslem

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was already a Bible reader, for in one of the alcoves of the
room was a well-thumbed New Testament.

But no sooner did we begin to unpack our things than
a gruff voice from below called for us to come down im-
mediately and bring all our belongings. A lank-looking
Individual, who said he was a police agent, compelled us
to follow him, and so we went through narrow, dirty
alleys and smelling streets, and were finally conducted
into the courtyard of a large tumble-down house, the
steps all crumbling and indescribably filthy. After
struggling up the steep, irregular stairway, we were shown
into a small room in a part of the house quite by itself,
which opened out on to a small roof. It had no windows
and only one dingy door.

A smoky lamp without a chimney was brought in
which lit up the darkness but also showed the dirt.
Many generations of men and insects had lived there, and
marked up every space on the walls. When we pro-
tested and said we preferred to stay elsewhere, we were
told to remain ; that we were prisoners, and that we were
not permitted to go to any other place. While my hus-
band was led off to the governor by himself I waited. It
took him over an hour to try to persuade the great official
to allow us liberty, but it was all to no purpose. We
must remain in these lodgings which he had provided.
There were soldiers on each landing, he told us, and they
were warned to protect us and not to let us pass out. So

we settled down to the inevitable. The kind Arab from

Bedouin \\ omen and their Children

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA
Darain was also in Katif, and later on in the evening he
brought the jail-birds some quilts and rugs to make them
a little more comfortable. We did our best to rest, but it
was almost impossible, and we were glad to see the first
streak of dawn. Determined not to stay in the house any-
longer, we prepared a meal from our lunch basket,
packed our few belongings and started to find our way
to the street. The ragged individuals called soldiers
murmured as we passed but did not stop us and we were
out in the road and some distance from the governor's
house when our servant whom we had not seen until now
came after us and said we must not go ; that the governor
wanted us and wanted us at once.

I began to protest, but was finally persuaded to return
and to my great surprise was conducted into a room gor-
geously furnished where a nice-looking meal was being
set on a small table. The governor arose and received us
very politely, inquiring after our health and comfort.
We swallowed our wrath and told him in the best Arabic
possible that we were quite well and hoped his lordship
was also. He then invited us to breakfast and would not
accept a refusal. We wondered what would happen next.
After we had explained our errand and stated our desire
to sell books to the people and talk to them about religion,
he said he would permit us to stay with the custom-house
officer, but that we must not distribute or sell a single
book and that a soldier must go with us wherever we

went. It was his belief that the people might do us harm

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA
unless we were well guarded, and that as they had never
before seen Christians it was entirely unsafe for us to dis-
tribute books or sell them among Mohammedans as
fanatical as those in this part of Arabia. Thanking him
for his kindness and accepting his apologies for keeping
us as jail -birds during the night, we left his rooms and
started walking through the streets. A soldier guard
followed us, but when we refused to pay them for their
service as guards and guides, they turned their backs and
went away. And so in this land of misrule and intoler-
ance, this uttermost province of the Turkish Empire, we
were once more free.

100

THE ACOEN SCHOOL

TO the American schoolboy a Moslem school and
school-books would appear the dullest things
possible. Yet the Arab boys do enjoy school
for there is always something to distract the attention,
especially if the teacher is a shopkeeper. While a cus-
tomer bargains, or the water carrier passes, or the coffee-
house man brings the daily *'cup of cheer, '^ or, in the
case of a woman teacher, callers come, all eyes and ears
are open not towards the lesson but the conversation ai^d
the sights.

The earliest and only text-book is the Koran or portions
of it cheaply lithographed on common paper. There are
no pictures in their primers, for a Moslem tradition says
that Mohammed cursed all who would paint or draw men
and animals. There is neither singing nor prayer when
school opens. Mohammed said, ''Singing or hearing
songs causeth hypocrisy to grow in the heart even as rain
causeth corn to grow in the field." The school has no
special building, but may be in the corner of a mosque or
in the yard of the teacher ; or part of his shop (if he is a
merchant) will form the schoolhouse. There is no furni-
ture except mats and folding bookstands. These look
like tiny sawbucks. The schoolmaster sits amongst his

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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

boys on tlie floor, and they all drone out their lessons to-
gether. There are no grades, neither is there order in
the schoolroom. One lad may be at the alphabet ; an-
other one as far as counting numbers j a third child may
be spelling out the first chapter of the Koran, while others
are reading from the middle of the book at the top of
their voices. The education of a boy should begin at the
age of four years, four months and four days. On that
day he is taught to say the Bismillah, or opening chapter
of the Koran. Soon after that he may be sent to one of
the day-schools to learn the alphabet.

When a boy has finished the reading of the whole of
the Koran for the first time and has learned the rudiments
of writing, he graduates from the primary school. On
this occasion he has a> rare holiday. Dressed in fine
clothes, perhaps mounted on horseback, he visits the
neighbours, receives gifts and sweetmeats and brings a
handsome present to his tutor. If he does not intend to
become a doctor of divinity or of herbs, this is the end of
his school- days, and the lad is put to learning a trade or
helping his parents.

As to moral training, tradition commands pious Mos-
lems to teach the boy of seven to say his five daily
prayers ; at the age of ten, if he omits them they are to
admonish him by blows. Boys are taught early the pro-
prieties of conversation and behaviour according to
Oriental etiquette. They are also taught the ceremonial
washings and the correct postures for devotions. But

102

A Meccan Boy

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA
purity of conversation and truth are seldom taught by
precept, and never by examx^le.

Writing is taught on a wooden slate or in copy-books
made by the teachers. Slates and slate pencils are prac-
tically unknown, and the youngest child begins with a
reed pen and ink. Caligraphy is not only a science, but
the chief fine art in that part of the world which abhors
painting, statuary and music. To write a beautiful
Arabic hand is the height of youthful scholarly ambition.

A country that has only such schools cannot progress ;
and so the missionaries open schools with a broader
course of study and with better training for the mind and
heart.

The first Christian school in East Arabia was opened in
1899 on the veranda of the old mission house overlooking
the sea. The little children of Ameen who was in prison
for his faith were living with their mother in our house,
and they needed to be taught ; two of the rescued slave
boys from Muscat, who had come to help in the house-
work, had some spare hours in the morning, and it was
better for them to study than to sit around doing nothing,
for Satan finds an awful amount of mischief for idle hands
to do in Bahrein, and so the little school was started for
the children in the house. We gave it the name of the
^' Acorn School '' in faith that as ** tall oaks from little
acorns grow,'' so some day education in Arabia would be
what it is now in America. We had lessons for two hours
each morning, marching, singing, etc., for the little ones,

103

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

baby Bessie lying ou the couch near-by while the children
were being taught ; others wished to join, but neither ac-
commodations nor strength^would allow us to enlarge our
borders at that time.

After some months an Arabic teacher was assigned to
the station to teach a new missionary the language, and
about that time we moved into a larger house. Then our
numbers increased, and one of those early pupils was a
young Jewish girl ; another was a Jewish jboy, who re-
mained about three years, and was always a docile and
clever pupil in English and Arabic ; he has a complete
Bible in Arabic, which they read in his home. The girl
was a great help to us in every way — first in school, and
later in the hospital ; she is quite a changed girl and a
superior one, and we trust the day will come when she
will openly confess Christ and follow Him. Some
grown-up lads were among those first scholars, and they
came to learn English. One of the older boys was such
an apt pupil that he was taken on the staff of the English
Political Agent as interpreter for the Persians ; another
advanced so far that he is able to buy and sell for the
wholesale business, and for this reason is a great help to
his father, a merchant in Bahrein. These boys have
learned much of the truth along with their English, and
neither of them now believe that the sun sets in a pool of
black mud !

The reflex influence of the school is felt even in their

homes, changing some of the habits and language. Some

104

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

of those early scholars have gone to the Eternal Home.
Quite a number of the missionaries and native helpers
have helped from time to time in this school, for when
one left, another would take up the work. The last few
years the girls have been doing needlework and learning
how to make their own clothes neatly.

There are a great number of Christians and Jews, but
the greater number in good weather are Moslems, and in
the cool season the little room is overcrowded, and one
teacher is very busy trying ^to keep airemployed. The
school is still in the initial stage, but it has proved its
right to exist, and when we look into the brightening
faces of those who gather to be taught, and listen to the
Scripture portions repeated and the hymns 'spiritedly
sung, we can only say: ''What hath God wrought ! "
To outsiders the school may seem a small thing, but to us,
who have watched its slow growth, it is encouraging.
The teaching has always in view the honour of Christ in
a land where His title, '' Son of God," is disputed.

If you could see our new school building you would
know how much better off the children are who come to
the Christian school than those who still attend the native
schools. The rooms and the seats, and windows through
which glorious sunshine and light shine, the blackboards
and maps and pictures all help to educate through '' eye
gate." The boys and girls are graded and separated, for
coeducation is not yet a good thing in Arabia. When I
taught in the school I used to surprise the girls occasion-

105

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

ally by bringing to school' some little treat of fruit, dates
or candy ; and I wish you could have heard their hearty
''Thank you " and listened to them as they left the yard
and went over the desert to their houses, singing at the
top of their voices in Arabic Christian hymns which they
had learned in school. They thought it would please me
and impress us with their goodness. And it was good to
hear these girls and sometimes small boys singing " My
Faith Looks up to Thee," ''Jesus Loves Me, This I
Know," etc. And even if they did not understand the
deep meaning nor enter into it, it gave them pleasure to
sing the bright tunes. And while they sang, they were
out of mischief at least. It was so new for these Moslem
girls to have any one to care anything about them.

106

XVI
THE STOEY OF A EOLLER BANDAGE

THE day was very hot, and I was very tired.
The flies were buzzing thick around me and
it was impossible for me to keep awake over
the book which slipped from my fingers and fell on
the floor. I stretched myself for one of those delightful
noonday naps which, in spite of the heat and the flies,
revive the life of the missionary and make him ready for
the work of the afternoon, and as I slept, I dreamed a
dream.

I was walking up towards the mission hospital, when
what should I see coming down the steps but a roller
bandage, walking along as happy as could be, and after
exchanging the usual Arab greeting of *^ Salaam," he told
me this story :

*' I suppose you have never heard of me before, and I
am sure you never will unless I introduce myself and un-
roll the story of my short but interesting life.

'* A little, round, fat body like me may have along
story to tell ; for when I lie at full length I measure four
yards without stretching the truth one bit.

** It is only six months ago, as far as I remember, that
I was part of a fine new piece of white muslin in the
store window of a merchant, and had no name or place or

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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA
mission of my own in'tliis big world. One day tlie sales-
man reached out and took the piece of muslin down. It
was sent with a lot of other purchases to the home of a
lady (I think her name was Phoebe or Dorcas) greatly
interested in foreign missions.

'^ The next thing I knew, the willing hands and deft
fingers of a band of little folks tore me from my seven
sisters and rolled me up so snug and tight that none would
imagine I was only a strip of cloth. And then, when a
bright new pin was stuck on my breast, really I began to
feel quite important. The following day I was put into a
pasteboard box with three dozen other roller bandages,
and I remember hearing a short prayer, just as they tied
down the cover, that God would bless us on our errand of
mercy to dark Arabia.

''Time would fail me to tell of the days we spent in the

basement of the building of the Board of Foreign Mis-

108

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

sions, waiting to be put in our corner of a big box, and
of all the interesting things I learned from those who
spoke about the heathen and Mohammedans while they
were packing supplies for the various mission fields.
You know I never knew there were so many doctors and
nurses, and so many hospitals and dispensaries — not to
speak of schools and other things under the care of our
Board.

'^Finally, the box that was to be my prison house for
two long months was tumbled into a dray and taken to
the North Eiver pier. There they lifted us into the
dark hold of a ship ; the sailors fastened down the
hatches ; the whistle blew, and we were off for the long
voyage.

^' Being a roller bandage from my earliest youth, I did
not at all mind the motion of the vessel ; but some of the
dolls and picture cards were all upset.

'' When we reached Bombay we were transferred with a
great deal of unnecessary noise to another ship bound for
the Persian Gulf. I remember that I was curious to know
at which port of the Gulf I would disembark. One of
the biggest roller bandages said ^eknew, for he had heard
the New York lady tell the children that these bandages
were for the Mason Memorial Hospital at Bahrein, Arabia.
All were not agreed.

''A many-tailed bandage said he thought we were going
to Busrah to help in the dispensary there, but a T bandage,
which has three ends to it and is shaped like a big letter

109

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

T, contradicted him, and there came near being a quar-
rel. The little bandages, however, with one accord
smoothed it over by saying : * Wait and you will see.^

' ' The big roller bandage was right. When the British
India steamer entered Bahrein harbour with a large cargo
of rice and tea and Manchester goods, the missionary
boxes got mixed up with the rest, and were put over the
ship's side into native boats.

* ' Such a hubbub and shouting ! I knew we were among
Arabs and in the land of Ishmael, although I could not
understand one word of their strange language.

^ ' From the cargo boat we were carried on the back of a
donkey through the surf to the custom-house, and thence
once again to the hospital. I cannot say I enjoyed the
donkey ride. The boy who drove the beast had an awk-
ward way of turning sharp corners in the narrow streets,
and then the big packing case would bump hard against
a stone wall, and give us an awful shaking.

''It was a relief to hear the voices of our new friends.
Soon the box was opened, and we saw daylight once more.
The sheets and blankets were put to immediate use in the
general ward ; the dolls put away for Christmas ; while
we were taken to the operating-room, and put behind
glass doors on a shelf. Even though I was not an eye
bandage, I could easily see that we were occupying the
best room in the entire hospital, and I distinctly heard
one of the ladies say : * These bandages are fine.'

''You can imagine that we kept our eyes and ears open

110

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

after such a welcome. Well, it was rather monotonous,
after all. Every day, nearly, the doctor had some sort of
eye patient on the table, and consequently the eye
bandages put on airs of great importance. We waited
impatiently.

" One day a nurse came in suddenly and seized me by
my throat and took me without ceremony to the general
ward, a big room with twelve beds in it.

*'0n the stretcher, in the middle of the floor, lay an
Arab, looking very untidy and weak, and in great pain. I
heard his story. His name was Ahmed bin Haroon, and
he was a poor fisherman from the distant village of Zillag.
Zillag is one of those little struggling hamlets on the
Island of Bahrein to which the missionaries occasionally
make zigzag journeys, visiting the people to carry them
Gospels or to invite the sick to the hospital. The day be-
fore, very early in the morning, while he was mending
his nets and collecting his fish, a robber came, stabbed
him twice in his abdomen, and taking the fish, ran away.

* ' The poor man had two nasty cuts, deep and dangerous,
and I heard them say while cleaning the wounds that he
would probably not live. Though he looked so ignorant
and dirty, I really felt sorry for the poor fellow, and won-
dered if I could be of much help. After the doctor put
on the dressings, my turn came. In fact, I had more
turns than I have ever had since, all in the space of five
minutes. Bound and round that Arab they wound me
close. But to see the look of gratitude on his face when,

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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA
in a clean shirt and on a ^nice spring bed, with me for
company, he opened his eyes— well, it was worth the long
journey, I can tell you. Over our bed there was a chart
with No. 109, and the man's name on it. There were
also curious zigzag lines drawn every morning and even-
ing across the chart. The doctor put these lines there,
for I saw him do it, after inserting a fever thermometer
in the patient's mouth. I soon learned to know whether
the line would go up or down by counting the heart-beats
of my companion. Of course, being so close together, we
learned to like each other, and I one day explained to
him how the people away off in America had sent me as
their little missionary for his comfort. On the opposite
side of the ward there is a picture of Christ healing a
blind man, which we used to look at.

*' They prayed for No. 109 and read a little to him, but I
am sure he understood what I told him much better. You
see, until he got hurt he was very suspicious of Christians
and believed all sorts of foolish things about them. Now
he talked with the other patients and watched what was
done for him, and felt me near him ; it was a new life for
him. His condition became more hopeful every day ; I
knew it by the way he began to enjoy his soup. Not that
I was with him all the time myself. No ; the other roller
bandages had their turn, and I heard the rest of the story
from them. Ahmed bin Haroon was discharged nearly
cured on the first day of the Moslem fast month. He
came back after for a visit, and is going about his work

112

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

—the same fisherman. Only there is no telling how much
he may think of what he saw and heard while he mends
his nets at Zillag. And the missionaries are sure of a
warm welcome in that village ever hereafter.

*^ The day I was taken off duty and said good-bye to my
patient I met such a lot of bandages down -stairs in the
surgery ; there seemed no end of them ! Of course, most
of them were common, from the Bahrein bazaar, and un-
bleached, but they had good stories to tell, nevertheless.
I heard it stated on good authority that over a thousand
yards of bandages were used up in one month. And
when I saw the number of men, women and children with
ulcers and abscesses, sitting on the veranda that day, I
did not doubt the fact. Only I wish I could have told it
to that salesman in New York and to the kind lady.
Then there would have been more of us ; for I am sure it
is no trouble for the boys and girls to make rollers of us.

*^ My end was near. In spite of all that I had done for
the hospital, the sweeper carried me out in a bucket, and
then, without ceremony or apology, the whole pile of us
were set on fire, and we went up in a chariot like Elijah.^'

He ended his story, and as I looked at him, I was just
about to say : '^ How did you ever get back here out of
the bucket and the fire to come and tell me your story V^
but when I began to speak, the bandage speedily disap-
peared, and so did the hospital, and I awoke from my
dream. The hospital records, however, show how the
story of the bandage is true in every particular,

113

I G

Z A G
R A

JOURNEYS

B I A

" Oh, what can little hands do

To please the King of Heaven ?

The little hands some work may try-
To help the poor in misery :

Sach grace to mine be given."

XVII
NAJMA'S LAST CHEISTMAS

OUR little Arab friend, Najma, was born a long
distance from the place where last Christmas
was spent. Bagdad is the city, you remember,
where Sinbad the sailor lived, and in this very city on the
old river Tibris Najma was born. Her father and mother
were both good Moslems and she was their first-born child,
and yet not very welcome, because all Moslems like to
have boy babies and not girls. They gave her the name
of Fatima after the daughter of Mohammed, their
prophet. When she was afterwards baptized into the
Christian faith with her mother the name Najma was
given her which means a ''star." Her father suffered
much persecution for changing his religion, and when he
was sent into exile far away from his home, she with her
mother and brothers came down the river to Busrah and
down the Persian Gulf to Bahrein. It was a long zigzag
tourney for them by flat-bottom river boat and ocean
steamer, and then in the little harbour boat, tacking with
the wind to shore.

Until the family came to us they did not know what
Christmas meant, and of course had never celebrated it.
When her third Christmas came, and it was her last, it
was still a fresh and joyful occasion to her, therefore, as it

was to all of us in that lonely island and amongst our lit'

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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

tie group of converts. Not only was it the last Christ-
mas to Najma but for others in that company gathered to
celebrate the birthday of our Saviour. Two other little
voices that sang so sweetly

** Where do all the daisies go ?
I know, I kuow !
Underneath the snow they creep,
Drop their heads and go to sleep.
In the spring-time up they peep.
That is where they go,"

were silent before the next Christmas came around. And
then the mother of Najma who looked so strong and sat
in the corner, interested so deeply in all the recitations
and songs, with two others of that little company had gone
Home before the end of the new year.

It was Najma's last Christmas, however, that I was
going to tell about. We had been busy all morning
decorating the little chapel in the hospital and getting the
simple gifts all in order for the afternoon celebration.
E'ajma had not been well for a few days, suffering with
those attacks of fever that are so common in the Persian
Gulf. \Yhen Christmas came we thought she would not
be well enough to attend, but she begged so hard and was
so sure that she would be all right that we sent around a
donkey to her home ; and when her mother had put on all
her new garments, so bright and pretty, she rode to the
hospital. Although she was weak, when she came with
the other children she brightened up considerably and

116

A Bedouin Girl playing- peek-a-boo on a camel

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

took a keen interest in everytliing, even helping to sing
the Christmas carols. When the others had said their
pieces, she insisted on saying hers and repeated beauti-
fully the whole fifty-first Psalm. Then she waited until
the refreshments were served — that most important part
of a Christmas celebration — and afterwards wishing
everybody a Happy Christmas she was placed on the
back of the donkey and went home. ;

I wish you could have seen our Christmas tree on that
occasion. It consisted of a number of palm branches tied
together and the gifts were hung from the spikes of the
branches, — presents old and new for all who came. Most
people would have been surprised at the absence of dolls,
but in Arabia these have to be given out sparingly and
judiciously because some of the Moslems are too much
afraid of idol worship to appreciate dolls in their homes.
Therefore, we gave the children writing pads and pencils,
books and toys, beads and new dresses, small bags of rice
for the poorer scholars, — something for everybody. How
joyfully each received his or her gift !

Najma gathered up all the little things given to her
and kept them close by her side all the next day and
took a great deal of pleasure in them ; but in the even-
ing of that day we were suddenly called out to see her
and found her dying from heart failure following that
week of fever. It was a surprise and a shock to us all.
In spite of her faults those who knew her best could not
help loving her. With tremendous difficulty she learned

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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

to read the Gospel and was very proud of her attainment
as it is only one girl in a thousand among the Arabs who
can read. To lose such a bright little Arab girl seemed
very sad at that time, but God makes no mistakes, and
we are so glad that this little girl had such a bright
Christmas as her last on earth. Think of the children
who are in the hospital to-day, many of them for the first
time in contact with Christians, and that some of them
have never yet had their first Christmas in Arabia.
There are many, many little girls in this neglected coun-
try who would enjoy a Christmas so much if only they
knew as Najma did about the Babe born in a manger
for their sakes. It is nineteen hundred years ago that
He came to the world as its Saviour and yet there are
so many countries where the boys and girls have not yet
heard of His coming.

If we would win the whole, round world for Jesus we
must tell His story all around the earth and give every-
body a chance to read the story of His life. Do you re-
member those beautiful verses of Father Tabb in regard
to the First Christmas ?

" A little Boy of Heavenly birth
And far from Home to-day,
Comes down to find His ball, the earth,
Which sin has cast away.
Come, comrades, let us one and all
Join in to get Him back His ball."

118

XVIII
THOSE WHO HAVE NEVEE HEAED

IF all Arabia is to hear the story of the Gospel, there
are many zigzag journeys yet to be made. The
country is much larger than most people imagine,
and a great part of it is still unexplored. Fortunately
the unexplored sections of the great peninsula are nearly
all uninhabited as far as we know, but no one has been
there to see or investigate. If you were to travel from
New York to Chicago and back on a camel, the distance
would be about as great as to cross Arabia once in its
broadest direction. Topsy Turvy Land is three times as
large as the state of Texas, the largest state in the Union.
It is nearly as large as all British India, excluding Burma,
and if you spread Arabia out on the map of Europe,
without tucking in the corners, you could cover the whole
of France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland,
Italy, Austria, Servia, Eoumania, and Bulgaria.

The population of this great stretch of country with its
table-lands and deserts, its villages and encampments, is
perhaps eight million ; and just as Arabia, with its four
thousand miles of coast, has only three lighthouses for
ships that pass in the night, so the light of the Gospel is
shining in only a very few places along the coast, and
hardly at all in the interior. At Aden, and Muscat, and

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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA
Bahrein, and Kuweit and Busrah, as well as along the
rivers as far as Bagdad, there are lighthouses of the
Gospel. Although only like little caudles burning in
the night, they can be seen from a lou^ distance. Patients
come for hundreds of miles to the hospitals, and when
they go away, carry the gospel message for hundreds of
miles back to their villages. And yet what are these
few stations for so large a territory, and what can less
than forty missionaries do among so many people ?

When the great Missionary Conference met at Edin-
burgh in 1910 and the report was made on How to Carry
the Gospel to all the non- Christian World, it stated that
** Of the eight million inhabitants of Arabia, it is entirely
safe to say that fully six million are without any mission-
ary agency." One can travel from Bahrein across the
mainland for 1,150 miles without meeting a missionary
or a mission station, all the way to Aden. On the entire
Bed Sea Coast, as well as the south coast between Aden
and Muscat, there is no mission work. Of the six prov-
inces of Arabia, only three are occupied by mission
stations. 'No one has ever preached the Gospel at Mecca,
where IMohammed was born, or at Medina, where he lies
buried, and although some ninety thousand pilgrims from
every part of the Moslem world pass through Jiddah
every year on their way to Mecca, this imiDortant city is
still waiting for an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the most neglected class in this great neglected

country are the Bedouins, or nomads. Like Ishmael of

120

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA
old, ^Hheir hand is against every man, and every man^s
hand is against them.'^ Hated alike by the town dwell-
ers and the Turks, they are the roving gypsies of the
Orient, and yet they are so numerous and so closely bound
together by tribal ties that sometimes one can see their
black tents spread out in vast encampments like a city
of tabernacles in the wilderness.

It is a strange life these children of Ishmael lead, a life
full of its joys and sorrows and desert hardships. Under
the shadow of a black tent, or the shade of an acacia
bush, or perhaps behind a camel, the Arab baby first
sees the daylight. As soon as it is born, its mother gives
it a sand-bath, and the father gives it a name. For the
rest, it is allowed to grow up much as it pleases. Trained
from birth in the hard school of fatigue and hunger and
danger, the Bedouin children grow up saucy and im-
pudent, but with cunning and a knowledge of all the
ways of the desert and the life of the caravans.

The Bedouin children have no books nor toys. They
play with dead locusts or dried-up camePs bones ; they
make whistles out of desert grass, and love to use the
sling as David did, with pebbles from the brook when he
killed the giant. The girls help in the hard work of
drawing water, making butter and driviDg the camels to
and from pasture. Although they cannot read, and have
no picture books, they all of them study without ceasing
the great picture book of nature, and their little dark
eyes, whether watching the sheep at pasture, or counting

121

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS

ARABIA

the stars in the blue abyss from their perch on the lofty
camel saddle in the midnight journey ings, are never at
rest.

In some parts of Arabia, Bedouin women when they
travel ride on a camel saddle called a Jiowdijj which pro-
tects them from the gaze of strangers. Sometimes they
play peek-a-boo, as the camel trudges along. In maDy
respects their life is most unhappy. Doughty and other
travellers believe that over one-half of the nomad popula-
tion seldom know the blessing of a full meal. When they
hear from the lips of Western travellers of countries where
there is bread and clothing and peace, and water in great
abundance, they are surprised, and contrast the condition
of other nations with their lives of misery. One of them,
after listening to Doughty' s description, threw his hands
up, and uttered this prayer, ^'Have mercy, O Allah,
upon Thy creature whom Thou createdst ! Pity the
sighing of the poor, the hungry, the naked. Have mercy,
have mercy upon them, O Allah ! ' ' Who can help
saying **Amen" to the nomad's prayer? We cannot
judge them harshly when we remember that they have
never had a fair chance, and that for centuries warfare
and plunder have been their daily life. I remember with
much interest a Sunday I spent in the black tents of
Kedar, with a crowd of nomads sitting around. They
were most hospitable, and brought in great wooden bowls
of fresh milk, with butter floating in it, dried dates and

bread baked on the coals ; then, when our appetites were

122

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

satisfied, they listened, oh, so eagerly, as I told them for
the first time the old, old story of Jesus Christ's birth, aud
death and resurrection. Some of them were so ignorant
that they had never heard of a cross, and I remember
taking two twigs from the ground and showing them how
our Saviour was crucified for our sins, according to the
Scriptures. No one has visited that tribe in Oman since
my journey eight years ago. How long must they and
others wait for Christian teachers? Shall the Bedouin
babies have a better chance than their mothers had ?

The kingdoms and governments of this world have
frontiers which are guarded and must not be crossed
without permission, but the kingdom of Jesus Christ has
no frontier. It has never been kept within bounds. It
has a message for the whole race, and the very fact that
there are millions of people in the heart of Arabia who
have never heard, becomes the strongest of reasons why
we must carry that message to them. Difficulties and
dangers should not hold us back. They did not hold
back Jesus Christ when He made the long journey to our
lost world. He depends on us to finish His work. As it
is written :

"They shall see to whom no tidings of Him came,
And they who have not heard shall understand."

O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling,
To tell to all the world that God is Light ;
That He who made all nations is not willing
One soul should perish, lost in shades of night.
123

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS
ARABIA

' Publish glad tidings ;
Tidings of peace ;
Tidings of Jesus,
Eedemption and release."

124

IN THE CAMEL COUNTRY

ARABIA

, ARABIA

F. F., FLOmS FERWERDA

A ■
Gol
Gol
A •'-

her
her

■ bi-af A * ra - bi-a! For thee ourpray'rsas - cend,
aids of the g-os - pel,^o! Urg^ed by your Mas -ter's love»
aids of your Sa- viour.sondThe mes-sag^e fax and near,

• 'bi-a! A. --^ ra - bi-al Up - on thy dark-est. night.

That soon theful-ness of Gods love, And lig-ht onthee de '--scend.

Let ev r 'ry A - rab cap-tire know; He lives— the God of love.

Till ev : -* 'ry Moslem heart shall bend In ho - ly.reverend fear.-

The Sua of Rig^hteousness as cends; He comes togivethee light.

From O - man's cUffeto Ye- maiib strand Jhy truth from sea to sea.

His "truth proclaim, Jffis man-dales naime.Sal - va- tion's offering- brijig-;

Speed.' mes • sen-gers of peace.speed on! Gods promised truth make known;

Be - fore Him shall the ores -cent wane. Him ev - 'ry king shall bless;

^^E^=^=g^^^E5?-f^U 1 1 i.i ^^^^^^

Make known
Till ev -
Chil - dren
The .wild -

io ev-'ry A rab band, 0 Lord! andmakelher

• 'ry soul shall! earn His fame, And crov\'n the Saviour-

of Ishmael, Ha gars son. Go! claim them as God

er-ness shall praise His name.The isles His love con

n fr
-Kii
s aw

1 — "H

ee.

Iff-
'n.
ss.

^^=r—

-^r-nr- Ffz^^— vfH^

1 — ^

125

Printed in the United States of America.

Date Due

DS207 .Z985

Zigzag journeys in the camel country;

Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library

1 1012 00023 1292

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